Proving the Heart Wrong
by paigenumber
Summary: James and Lily's final year at Hogwarts has began and already conflict flickers between them. With The Marauders and Lily's best friend Rosie trying to push her into love, she's definitely trying to prove them wrong. Sometimes fooling your mind is easier than fooling your heart. It's better than the summary makes it sound! Please read. Picture is done by; viria13.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer; I don't own this amazing series of books but, Rosie Hunter, Alison Potter, Anna Lee and James' uncle are all my Own Characters. **_

_**Chapter 1; **_

James stood on Platform 9 and 3/4 among the fog, grinning broadly. He'd gotten Head Boy, to his continued surprise. He was afraid he'd never get used to the esteemed title.

He watched the students and their families around him. Most of the first years looked like they couldn't choose between feeling overwhelmed, scared or excited. He supposed most of them would be feeling a mixture of all three. He scanned the fog again, trying to locate the members of the Order of the Phoenix who were escorting him and his adopted sister to Hogwarts. The Order members had come through to the platform before him with Alison.

His father had been captured and tortured during James's second year by Death Eaters to the point of insanity. His mother had gone crazy when she'd found out about her husband, and although it killed James to have lost his parents so early in his life, he had to admit that was love. His father had died during James's fourth year and his mother was still in St. Mungo's. James visited her every weekend but she never recognised him. James hated how much it hurt him that when he visited his mother he never saw the glint of recognition light up her eyes.

James finally located the Order members and his sister. One of the members, Anna Lee was her name, was dressed in a simple green dress and a tan overcoat, her bright red hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her luminous blue eyes glinted with amusement as she watched the little girl with auburn hair.

His father's brother and James both had the same slightly lanky but muscular build, and they both had the same black hair that usually stuck up at odd angels. He also had the glasses, which James had inherited. It felt like James was being stabbed repeatedly whenever he was around his uncle as he was his father's identical twin.

"Jamesy!" The little girl screamed in delight upon seeing him, her face alight with excitement.  
He smiled at her broadly, before laughing softly as he picked her up and spun her around.  
"Hey Ali! Have you gotten more excited since I last saw you, kiddo?" Alison, or Ali nodded, her eyes flickering all over the platform, taking in the organised chaos of students, trunks, animals and magic.

"Yep! I can't believe I'm finally going to Hogwarts!" She cast a look at the Order members and her big hazel eyes watered slightly, causing her to bite her bottom lip softly, so the tears didn't overflow.  
James's arms instantly tightened around her, he hadn't wanted Ali to cry, not today.

"Ali, come on don't cry. You're going to Hogwarts!" Ali smiled weakly as James put her back on her feet and nudged her towards Anna Lee.

Anna Lee smiled at Alison warmly and pulled her into a loving embrace. Anna Lee had become a second mother to Alison and adored her more than anything else in the world.  
"Sweetie, you'll have fun! And James will look after you, darling." James nodded at Alison and gave her a warm smile as he ruffled her hair.  
Alison squeaked and jumped away from James's hands, trying to fix her beautiful hair as a whistle sounded.

James and his uncle laughed loudly at Alison's reaction, earning a glare from both Anna Lee and Alison.  
Both of the boys turned on their heels and hurried to load Alison's trunk and her little tawny owl, Caramel, into the train.  
As they loaded the trunk James' uncle looked at him, his eyes filled with a deep sadness that James had only seen cloud his uncle's face on rare occasions.

"You look just like him, you know." He paused briefly then continued, "You act just like him, James."  
James's chest burnt, and he forced himself to focus on loading Alison's trunk into the train carriage.  
"My brother's boys growing up. Head boy. Qudditch captain. Little Alison is finally going to Hogwarts. Everyone's growing up and showing just how much my brother's missed. James, he'd be so proud of you and Ali, so, so proud. Never forget that okay?"  
James's eyes filled with tears and he smiled slightly at his uncle, glad to see that a glowing pride had replaced the gut wrenching sadness. Even though his uncle wasn't his father, he was as good as to James. His uncle did the best he could, still struggling with the death of his identical brother.

In the middle of finally sliding the annoying trunk into the train a flash of deep red hair caught James's attention. His hands moved as if they had a mind of their own and ruffled his hair, giving it a windswept look. Usually this manoeuvre did more, well for this statement, good than harm, but this time James had the trunk in his hands.  
The trunk fell to the floor and landed on his foot. He cursed loudly and caught Anna Lee giving him a disapproving look as she covered Alison's ears.  
He gave her a sheepish smile as his uncle used his wand to load the trunk in.  
"Sorry Anna Lee."

Anna Lee shrugged and pulled him into a deep hug. She really was an amazing person. She took care of both Alison and James and loved them unconditionally even though they biologically weren't related to her.  
"Be good. Take care of Alison! Be a good example! Don't forget you have to go to the prefects..." She trailed off and burst into tears, pulling away from James as she desperately wiped at her eyes.  
"Hurry on now you two. We'll see you at Christmas!" James's uncle said quickly, ushering Alison and James towards the train so he could comfort Anna Lee.  
Alison hugged them both quickly and gave them a tear filled smile before stepping onto the train, James a couple steps behind her.

"Prongsie!" Someone yelled as they came and hugged James, grinning broadly.  
"Hey Padfoot." James said with a laugh as he de-tangled himself from his best mate.

Sirius looked exactly like he had when James had seen him over summer. His hair was long and shaggy, sitting in exactly the right position and he was as muscular as his best mate, maybe slightly more so.  
Sirius looked at James with a slight frown, noticing the badge he'd shoved into the pocket of his jeans. It was barely visible but apparently Sirius had X-ray vision.  
"Head Boy? You're head boy?" Sirius exclaimed in disbelief, momentarily forgetting that the second James had gotten the badge he'd sent his owl off to Sirius.

James nodded warily at Sirius and looked around quickly. "Have you seen Moony? And Wormtail? What about _her_?" James didn't need to elaborate on who _her _was, Sirius instantly knew he meant Lily Evans.

Sirius shook his head and towed James into their compartment where Remus and Peter were sitting. Remus already had his nose buried in a book so he missed the lightning fast look that flashed between Sirius and James.

Remus's face looked worn and tired, and he looked even skinnier than usual, so his clothes hung off him like they were multiple sizes too big. Then the pair's eyes fell on Peter. His eyes were the same, watery and beady, but he was smiling weakly. His sandy blonde hair had grown longer and he looked like he didn't share Remus's problem with his clothes being multiple sizes to big, quite the opposite actually.

When James and Sirius flopped down directly opposite Remus and Peter, Remus finally looked up from his book.

"Hey guys. Prongs shouldn't you be in the prefects carriage?" James slapped a hand to his forehead with a groan as he stood up, stretching out his long limbs.

As he ruffled his hair he looked at each of his friends in turn. "Can you make sure Alison is okay? I'm probably going to be stuck in a compartment with all those goodie two shoes most of the ride then I'll have to patrol the train so none of the gits do anything stupid…' James waved goodbye to his mates as he stepped out of the compartment. Lily Evans happened to step out of the compartment two from his, and he hurried and fell in step beside her.

"Hey Evans, can you believe I'm Head Boy?" James saw Lily signal to one of her friends, Rosie Hunter, who stepped out of Lily and her friend's compartments and joined his mates.

* * *

Rosie Hunter and Sirius were extremely close and had been since second year. During third year Sirius had tried to get the extremely gorgeous girl to go out with him to no avail. Rosie wasn't like most of the girls Sirius surrounded himself with. She was a mate through and through, amazing at Qudditch and quick to smile and laugh, but in no way was she interested in Sirius Black. Instead Rosie fended off her continuous stream of admirers and hardly dated. Her favourite pastime lately seemed to be making Sirius go nuts with desire for the girl, although she didn't seem to mean it. If Sirius thought he wanted that girl when she was a third year, he was positively crazy with desire now.

Rosie Hunter had always been a short girl, but she had exceedingly amazing curves. Walking down the halls you could usually hear someone or other comment on whether or not the Hunter girl was a fabulous snog or shag. If any guy touched her in an inappropriate place you were certain to either get an elbow to the face, or thrown to the floor. And that was just from Rosie. If Sirius was anywhere in the vicinity they'd be dead meat.

James had always liked Rosie Hunter, especially since she was trying to get Lily to go out with him, but also because she took most of the attention away from Lily.

Lily's voice snapped him out of his internal babble.

* * *

"No I can't, I still believe that you are trying to fool me into believing it." Lily shook her head and sent a glare back down to Rosie who was standing beside Sirius and laughing their arses off as they watched the proceeding pair.

Rosie nudged Sirius and loudly exclaimed. "Oh, our babies are growing up!" She then proceeded to pretend to dab at her eyes with her sleeve while Sirius called out. "You two better be good! If we hear you got into any trouble...straight to the naughty corner!"

James shot a glare at the two idiots and they fist pumped and disappeared back into their compartment, their laughter echoing around them in the hallway.

"Evans, I'm sorry, but I am Head Boy.' James was so sick of her doubting him and being continuously cruel.

When he'd found out he'd become Head Boy, he'd first sent his owl to Sirius and when he'd come back with the reply, he'd sent it to Remus with the news.

Remus proceeded to tell him Lily Evans had sent him a letter asking if Remus had gotten Head Boy, as she was Head Girl.

When James had heard that she was Head Girl his heart had leapt. He had a chance to prove her wrong, but she was being Lily Evans.

She was being bloody stubborn.

Lily snorted, and turned to face James, her finger coming to poke him in the chest.

"Listen here, Potter. This might be just a big joke to you, but it isn't to me." James looked at her with wide eyes at first before he grew angry, pushing her finger away from him with a little too much force, causing her to stumble away. He gently took her wrist to keep her from falling.

"When are you going to get over the fact that for the last few years, sure I've been a jerk and irresponsible but I did earn this title!?" Lily tried to squirm her wrist out of his grasp but he held on, not holding too tightly.

"When you prove me wrong, Potter." With one more powerful tug she snatched her wrist free from him and stalked off down to the prefects carriage, shooting a few glares over her shoulder at James.

James sighed and ran his hand through his hair. It was going to be a bloody long year.

* * *

Songs:

Back to Hogwarts ~ Starkid

You'll Be In My Heart ~Phil Collins

Had Enough~ Breaking Benjamin


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer; I dont own this amazing series of books, but Alison, Anna Lee, Rosie Hunter and James's uncle William are all my OC's. **_

_**Chapter Two;**_

James jumped off the train with an exaggerated sigh. Man, it was good to be back at Hogwarts. Whenever he was away from Hogwarts it was like a hole had been ripped inside his chest and that he'd slowly bleed to death.

Although he felt all that away from the magical castle, he didn't let it show, for Ali's sake at least.

Of course his Uncle William could see right through his fake mask. He'd try to make James feel better, but all he succeeded in doing when James was in one of his melancholy moods was becoming angry with himself, and later sad. James knew he shouldn't complain, he'd known his parents longer than Ali. She'd only been five when his parents had gone off their rockers, and henceforth she barely knew them.

She didn't remember that every Sunday morning their mother would make blueberry pancakes and would watch his father coach James on how to play Quidditch better. She didn't remember that every Christmas his mother would back the best biscuits ever and that she'd have to guard them like a hound so James and his father wouldn't get to them before they'd cool off.

He was shaken out of the memories as Rosie lightly slapped his shoulder, gesturing to Ali who was hurrying off to Hagrid and the awaiting first years.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye?!" James called, as he ran after his sister and picked her up, spinning her around like he had on the train platform.

Ali laughed and wiggled around, trying to get out of her big brother's arms before he potentially embarrassed her for the rest of her life.  
Rosie finally took pity on the wiggling girl and stood in front of James, her arms crossed over her chest.

"James Potter, put down the girl and no one gets hurt." She drew a licorice wand from her pocket and held it out, pretending she was about to hex him.

James made a big show of putting Alison back on the floor and falling at Rosie's feet as he begged for his life to be safe.

Alison gave them both a mortified look as Rosie began boasting in an exceedingly loud voice about how she could be a knight, while James pretended to kiss her shoes.

"You two are so mean!" Ali said as she lightly punched James's shoulder, gave Rosie a quick hug then ran off to Hagrid's large form. "Bye! See you in the Great Hall!"

James winced as Alison tripped and face planted the ground but sighed in relief as a small boy bent down, checked if she was alright then helped her to her feet.

"BE CAREFUL! DON'T FALL OUT OF THE BOATS!" Rosie screamed after Alison and the boy.

Rosie waved foolishly before tugging James to his feet and handing him half of the licorice wand. He gave her a _'thank you'_ head nod as she took his arm and pushed through the large throng of students who were impatiently trying to force their way into a carriage.

After weaving through the students like a pro for a few minutes, they finally arrived at the awaiting carriage that the rest of the Marauder's were leaning against. Rosie and James gave them all small, tired smiles.

Sirius looked up from the map he was studying intensely as Rosie gently patted the head of the thestral set to pull their carriage. A small frown was settled on his face as he looked at her through narrowed eyes.

"Why aren't you taking a carriage up with Evans and the rest of your mates? You really shouldn't take the carriage with us. "

Rosie didn't give Sirius a second glance as she gave the thestral's nose one final pat before climbing into the carriage before Remus, who'd muttered a quick, "Ladies first." Before following her inside and sitting directly opposite her.

James slid in beside her and after him followed Sirius and Peter.

* * *

The carriages were only built for four people and the fact that there were five people occupying this carriage was definitely proving that when a carriage was made for four people, there was no bloody way five people could fit without a bit of discomfort.

"OK, I have to sit on somebody's lap." Rosie declared as she tried to shove James over as he was currently crushing her against the window. Her words were slightly muffled as all the boys adjusted how they were sitting, and her face was pushed back up against the glass.

After a few more minutes of uncomfortable adjustments and Rosie being shoved against the window a few more times, Sirius finally took pity on her and gently tugged her onto his lap, where she crossed her arms over her chest and lightly rubbed the red mark that was starting to form on her pale cheek.

"This," Rosie grumbled. "Is why I never take the carriage with you four." A small smirk formed on Sirius's face as he looked at the girl on his lap.

"Well, I did ask why you weren't taking the carriage with Evans. I did also warn you not to take the carriage with us! See why you should listen to me, Hunter?' Rosie gave him a quick glare while she pushed her dark auburn hair out of her eyes. Her eyes could never really decide what color they were, they were constantly changing between blue and green.

"I was _not _going to listen to Lily complain about how much of a git James is. I had to listen to her while I was in the compartment for the last two minutes, and Merlin, that was enough for me."

She rolled her eyes and laughed, meeting James's eyes briefly before he looked out the window. Sirius laughed and tapped the slightly smudged glass.

"Hey look Rosie, a window stole a snog."

All five of the seventh years broke into a long fit of laughter that didn't end until they were finally at their much awaited destination.

Once they walked into the Great Hall, Rosie took her usual spot between the Marauders and her usual friends, glancing down at the empty plate in front of her with hungry longing.

James noticed Lily kept glancing at the big red mark on Rosie's cheek every few moments and he bit his lip with worry. He hadn't meant to shove her against the window; she was the smallest and by right should have been sitting right next to the door. He didn't know why he didn't think of that before all of them had tried to cram themselves into the carriage, but if he had, Rosie wouldn't currently have that mark on her face, he was sure of it.

He caught Sirius's eye and knew he felt exactly the same way. James was about to ask Rosie is she was okay when Professor McGonagall called up the little first years.

Every student from second year to seventh had their eyes trained on the first years, watching their every move.

Each house had their own reason of doing this, James thought,

Slytherins watched to see who'd they have the honor of bullying over the next few years. They also paid particular attention to the names of the students in case there was a muggleborn in their midst.

James really didn't understand why they hated Muggleborns so much. Rosie and Lily were Muggleborn, and they were two of the smartest girls he'd ever met.

Ravenclaw looked to see who would grow up to be smarter than them.

Hufflepuff looked out of pure curiosity, it was a known fact that they were extremely big gossips.

And the Gryffindors, you ask? James still hadn't figured that one out yet, after seven years of attending Hogwarts. He guessed it was because it was so much easier to judge the other houses rather than his own.

A flash of brown-red hair caught James's attention, and he watched as Alison fidgeted nervously. He couldn't blame her for being nervous, as he'd been just as bad during his sorting.

As James gave her an encouraging smile, he couldn't help but remember the talk he'd had with her the night before.

Alison hadn't been able to sleep and had come to James's room in the middle of the night, her usually smooth, pretty hair was rumpled and messy and she had a dressing grown around her. Accompanying her was a photo album and her teddy bear, both tucked under an arm.

James had sleepily let her in and listened to her concerns while they flicked through the family photo albums.

His mother had been in Ravenclaw and his father, Gryffindor; and Alison was worried that she wouldn't get in either of the houses.

James had gently stroked her hair while he comforted her. Eventually they both fell asleep, Alison feeling relieved and much better and James feeling bloody exhausted. He didn't mind it though, it was the least he could do for his little sister.

The sharp kick Sirius had sent his way told him that he'd missed all the sortings up to Ali, who was currently sitting on the stool. She was nervously gnawing on her lip as the hat was put on her head and covered her big eyes.

James wasn't aware he'd been holding his breath till he heard the hat shout, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Alison let out a happy laugh and came and sat between James and Rosie. Sirius ruffled the little girls' hair from across the table before returning his attention to the proceedings.

James caught Lily staring at him and he felt his stomach do a flip as he gave Ali a quick one armed hug, trying to forget how just by looking at him, Lily was making his mind whirl and his breath catch.

The sortings proceeded effortlessly, and just before the feast was about to appear, Dumbledore had Lily and James stand up, introducing the whole of Hogwarts to their new Head Boy and Girl. James beamed and waved easily and Lily smiled politely before sitting back down, leaving James standing there all by himself. He'd know since second year that Lily Evans did not like the spotlight, but that was uncalled for. He'd been in a momentary daze and hadn't sat as Lily had and he would have looked like an extreme git if he hadn't shouted effortlessly.

"LET'S ALL HAVE A GOOD YEAR, YOU HEAR ME?" He'd shouted to cover his momentary embarrassment.

As he sat down, he suppressed a grin, more than half of the students whooping and cheering as the food finally made its long awaited appearance. James caught Sirius's eye as his best mate was watching Rosie cheer the loudest, before grinning crookedly at all the Marauders and her friends and digging into her food.

James briefly caught Lily's eye, but she looked away. He shrugged it off as he spooned a good portion of food onto his plate.

******* Author Note******

Okay guys, I'm sorry that wasn't the best chapter but now that the sorting and the first night is out of the way I'll promise it'll be tons better!

* * *

Songs;

Ring the Alarm~ Beyonce

When You're Gone~ Avril Lavigne

Love that Let's Go~ Hannah Montana ft Billy Ray (Don't Judge!)

Been Here All Along~ Hannah Montana


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3;**

James had been dreaming. He dreamed often and usually had elaborate, informative dreams. He hated waking up before the dream had gotten to the point and he absolutely hated how Rosie had a habit of always banging on his door at exactly that time.

Just as she was now.

James couldn't exactly yell at the girl, since his new dormitory, the Head's Dorm, was well out of her way and she'd still made time to come and scream him into consciousness.

He appreciated how she'd been waking him and the rest of the Marauders up since their first year, as all of them had a big aversion to the torture device muggle's dubbed an "alarm clock".

* * *

He fumbled for his glasses on his side table until he finally had them crammed back on his face. James sat up and rubbed the back of his head sleepily, glancing around his new room in disdain. Missing his old dorm was something he hadn't really foreseen.

He hated how his new dorm was too quiet, too serene.

That was of course exactly why Lily loved it.

He rolled his eyes and slipped out of his bed and hurried to the door of his room as the knocking on the portrait door grew more insistent, a muffled voice could be heard through the door.

As James softly closed his bedroom door behind him and stretched with a sigh, he heard a tired voice break through the silence, like a knife through flesh, from across the common room.

"R-Ro-Rosie?" Lily Evans asked through a yawn and James felt his heart ache with longing.

She was even gorgeous half asleep and yawning widely, her red hair curling slightly at the ends and just the long shirt she slept in slightly rumpled and messy.

James blushed slightly and nodded, quickly yanking the door open as Rosie was about to knock, sending her stumbling into the common room.

Grabbing her wrist, her saved her from falling, gently pulling her against his bare chest to steady her. If this was any girl but Rosie Hunter, they'd be blushing and bumbling, possibly giggling if it was one of the gigglers.

Man he hated the gigglers...

But Rosie Hunter had no interest in James Potter whatsoever, well except as a mate and adopted brother, not that she needed any more.

* * *

She gave him a weak smile and stepped away from him, giving his chest a light push. "Shower. Now."

James's eyes scanned down her body and he raised an eyebrow.

Her white blouse hugged her chest a lot tighter than it usually did, and her skirt was shorter and hugged her curves perfectly...just like the blouse. Her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail and her big eyes were dark blue, bordering on purple.

He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair, thinking over how to phrase the question without earning a punch across the face.

"Uh...Rosie? Wh-who are you trying to impress?"

He watched as a light brush crept across her face as she tugged at the hem of the skirt lightly, trying to make the skirt look longer.

"Mary's mad because I elbowed her boyfriend in the face and broke his nose. She must've gotten into my laundry and done something to it because now they're tiny..." She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Laundry revenge, huh? How pleasant." Joked James as he lightly poked Rosie's stomach, before disappearing into his room to begin his morning preparations.

* * *

He didn't know how to help Rosie fix her shorter than usual clothes, but what he did know is that Sirius would _definitely _be jealous of all the attention she'd be getting for the day.

Heck, Sirius was jealous of the attention she got when she _wasn't _barely dressed.

James Potter definitely knew his best friend well, especially how his friend would feel once he saw Rosie.

Lily had offered to lend Rosie a skirt but Rosie had had to decline, knowing that whatever Lily lent her would be too long and would make her look like she was eight and playing dress up in her mummy's closet.

* * *

When Rosie had entered the Great Hall, her head held high, James swore he saw every guy in the hall pause what they were doing to inspect the girl.

Their eyes grazed over everything, her legs, hips, stomach, chest, neck, head, nothing was left unobserved by the boys.

James automatically stepped closer to Rosie and sent glares at anyone he met eyes with, reading the hunger and lust through their expressions.

He leaned close to Rosie and mumbled in her ear. "They're disgusting. Look at them all. Probably imagining what it'd be like to shag you."

Rosie laughed and pushed a few strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face, rolling her eyes as she sat at the Gryffindor table directly across from Sirius.

"They can imagine what they want, none of those perverts are getting _anything."_

James slid in beside her as she picked up a piece of bacon and chewed on it thoughtfully.

Sirius caught James's eyes as he shoved a piece of bacon into his mouth.

His best mate looked horribly relieved of Rosie's reaction to the admirers, although Sirius didn't look happy as he gave Rosie a quick glance, trying not to let his eyes linger over her body _too_ long.

"What happened to you? Trying out a new look?" Sirius asked nonchalantly, ruffling his hair as he suppressed a yawn.

Rosie looked up from her pile of bacon. That was another thing James had always loved about Rosie Hunter, she actually ate like a normal person and didn't continuously blabber on about how fat she was.

Not that she was fat, Qudditch definitely kept the beautiful girl in shape.

"What new look? Slag? I'll leave that to your fan girls Black." Suppressing the faintest of smirks, Rosie smiled her usual cheeky smile and returned to her food, leading Sirius to glance down the table at the girls who were staring at him wistfully, while giggling loudly.

* * *

The laughter died in James's throat as Lily sat beside her friends, throwing a look down at Rosie. James had been pointing at a bit of grease on Rosie's chest as he brushed a smudge of egg off the side of her mouth and he caught the smallest flash of jealousy glimmer in Lily's eyes as she watched her friend react to James's movements.

James assumed Lily must've been hoping for Rosie to push James away or probably clip him around the ears, but all she did was laugh and untuck her wand from her ear, quickly casting a spell so the grease disappeared.

James cocked his head to the side then thoughtfully sipped his pumpkin juice.

_Lily Evans_ couldn't have been jealous, he was certain he'd been seeing things.

Except a little voice at the back of his head kept arguing that she had, she'd been _jealous_.

But she was _Lily Evans_ and she had no interest in him what so ever.

_Right?_

* * *

_Songs;_

_Mr Brightside~ The Killers_

_Maneater~ Nelly Furtado_

_Promiscuous~ Nelly Furtado ft Timbaland _

_Beep~ Pussycat Dolls ft Will. _


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4;**

**Disclaimer;** I do not own this amazing series of books or their characters, although, Rosie Hunter and Alision Potter are my original characters.

* * *

"Wrong."  
Lily said with a smirk as she pushed her shiny hair out of her face.  
"I do not like James Potter, Rosie." Lily watched as the other girl rolled her eyes and leaned against the window, tugging her robes closed to keep out the sudden temperature drop.  
Well, that's what Rosie wanted Lily to believe, but Lily knew for a fact it was the point that her uniform hugged her body tightly, making her unable to do anything without hearing wolf whistles or getting groped. That also meant that more than half of the male population at Hogwarts was walking around nursing multiple bruises and scrapes.  
"Yes, of course not, Lils." Sarcasm laced Rosie's voice and made Lily want to slap the other girl across the face, but as Head Girl, she had to set an example. If there weren't so many first years around, she'd have definitely slapped the short girl.

Lily _was_ still slightly mad at Rosie for what had happened at breakfast last week, and she didn't know why. She also knew that Rosie knew that she had been jealous, which the little menace liked to continuously tease her about.

Rosie laughed and waved at a first year Lily didn't know. That fact made her feel slightly bad, she was Head Girl after all and it was within her responsibilities to know all of her fellow students.  
"Rosie!" The little first year squealed happily and ran at Rosie, flinging herself into the older girl's arms. Rosie spun the girl around happily, laughing ecstatically. Unable to suppress it, Lily's voice joined in, all three of their voices ringing around the hall like melodic music. The first year was only a couple inches shorter than Rosie's five-foot height.

"How are you, my little Ali-kins?" Rosie asked gently to the girl, Ali, amusement lacing her tone.  
Ali...Lily didn't even know an Ali attended Hogwarts. It might be a nickname... it most probably it is a nickname.

"Good! I love Hogwarts!" The Ali girl enthusiastically said as Rosie put her on the ground. Rosie then turned to Lily slightly and grinned, her eyes sparkling with a challenge. "I bet you don't know who this is, Lils.' Lily groaned, her friend had read right through her confusion and wanted to make a fool of her. Revenge probably, for how cold she'd been to Rosie lately.

Eventually, Rosie took pity on Lily and filled in whom the mystery girl was.  
"Lils, this is Alison Potter." Lily smiled at Alison, and then froze briefly. Potter, as in related to that git, James Potter!?  
"Potter...?" Lily gaped at the little girl. She looked, and acted, nothing like that arrogant toerag!  
Alison Potter had auburn hair that looked a lot browner than red and big, glowing hazel eyes. Across her nose was a light splattering of freckles and her body was small and slight, elegant.  
And James Potter...James Potter had hair dark as sin and eyes with green flecks in them. He was about six foot six in height and every inch of his body was packed with muscles, yet he wasn't overly muscled. His crooked half smile made her heart stop and her breath catch, and when he touched her...oh gosh when he touched her! She felt like she would fai- What was she doing!? She hated James Potter! Despised him and here she was thinking about how he made her heart beat faster.

Rosie clicked her fingers in front of Lily's eyes, at the same time lightly shaking her friend's shoulder, a groan escaping her lips. She was off again. Honestly, Lily Evans and the faeries were closer than something that was really close.  
"Lils. Lils. Lils!" Rosie huffed and slapped her friend across the face, the sound of the slap echoing down the hallway loudly. "Earth to Lily!"  
Lily spluttered and put a hand against her cheek, biting her lip angrily as blood rushed to the slapped flesh.  
Rosie Hunter did not stuff around, that was sure enough.  
"You cow! What was that for?" Lily shouted at Rosie, momentarily forgetting about the small girl standing beside Rosie, who was watching the exchange between both girls with wide eyes and a confused set to her mouth.

A smirk flittered across Rosie's face as her and Alison shared a knowing glance.  
"You were muttering, and this is a direct quote; James, oh James! Your eyes are so dreamy! And your smile! Oh and when you touch me..."  
Rosie broke off as Lily covered her friend's mouth with her hand, making the petite girl's words muffled and hard to understand.  
"For a midget, you're a menace, you know."  
Rosie nodded against Lily's hand and shrugged in a 'what can you do about it?' sort of way.  
Alison giggled and shook her head slightly before glancing at Rosie's watch, not making any move to help the girl. Struggling slightly against Lily's hand, Rosie finally gave up and swiped her tongue against her captor's palm. Lily let out a squeal and withdrew her hand, looking at it in bewilderment. "D-did you just l-lick my hand!?" Rosie shrugged and smirked at Lily, her hands going to rest on her hips. "You shouldn't have covered my mouth with your hand. I was going to bite you but decided not to since I slapped you beforehand. Also, I think the experience was much worse for me, thank you very much."

Lily glared at her best friend as she wiped her hand on her skirt multiple times, her nose wrinkled in slight disgust. "I hate you. You know I hate you, right?" Rosie shrugged and stuck her tongue out at Lily. "James _loves _me, Lily." Lily made a grab for the small girl, but she danced out of Lily's way and ran off, screaming back to Lily as she hightailed it out of there, "Better hurry now, Lils. Time for your favourite part of the day."  
Rosie didn't need to elaborate as Lily's heart leapt and colour rushed to her usually pale cheeks.  
Patrols.

With James Potter, his dreamy eyes and that unbearably sexy half-smile of his.

They'd been on much better terms since the start of the year now that they were in their second month of their last year at Hogwarts. Lily found it amazing to see how much James Potter had _actually _matured. It took her breath away to see him taking his duties so seriously and he even sometimes scolded her for goofing off.

Except that was only when other people were around to see them. When they were alone, which was more often than not, they talked and laughed and generally had an amazing time.

They'd taken to being around each other a lot in stride and Lily found herself missing him when he wasn't around. But she was Lily Evans and seven years worth of rejections kept her from seeking out his continued company. Also, she was as stubborn as an arse and Rosie usually described her stubbornness as teaching a horse how to get used to a bridle, unbearably long and draining.

Lily, who used to have a go at Rosie for alternating between the girls and the Marauders, was now encouraging her to hang out with the rowdy group of boys just so Lily could see James's crooked smile.

* * *

** Authors note;**I realised I've been neglecting my poor Jily moments, so the next 5 chapters will be Jily in the buckets full, as well as some Rosie and Sirius and maybe some Remus and a mystery girl... *hint, hint* If you guys have any idea for Remus's mystery girl, PM me your suggestions and of course you'll get credit for your lovely character.

Songs;

Sweet Dreams (Beautiful Nightmare) ~Beyonce

You Got Me~ Colbie Colbat

Fall For You~ Secondhand Serenade


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5; **

**Disclaimer;**I don't own these books, but I do own Rosie Hunter.

* * *

As James Potter burst into the Head's Common room, sweaty and dirty from Qudditch practice, he couldn't believe that Lily Evans actually looked happy to see him. A brilliant smile lit up her face as he stood before her, puffing slightly from running straight up to the dorm from practice

"S-so-sorry I'm late." He puffed, rubbing the back of his neck slightly.

Lily shrugged and beamed at him. "It's okay Potter, but you better hurry up and shower or we'll be late for patrols."

James nodded faintly and walked off to his room, slightly shocked that Lily Evans hadn't yelled at him like she would have last year.

* * *

Lily's POV

He was even handsome covered in dirt and sweat, Lily decided as he walked off to shower. There was a loud, insistent knocking on the portrait door and Lily opened it to see a very frazzled looking Rosie Hunter. She was blushing furiously and looked slightly mortified.

Lily grabbed her best mate's hand and towed her into the common room, very concerned at her friend's unusual behavior.

Rosie's hair was slightly damp and tied up in to a bun on top of her head and she wore jeans and a sweater, which was slightly rumpled as if she'd thrown them on in a hurry. Rosie was unusually pale and looked slightly nauseous, which made Lily's concern spike.

"Ro…what's wrong? You look slightly nauseous…"

Rosie took a deep breath and fanned herself slightly, as if she believed the temperature in the room was too hot and uncomfortable.

"You know how I'm the only girl on the Qudditch team…right?" Lily nodded, not liking the tone of Rosie's voice or her facial expressions.

Rosie gulped slightly and continued.

"Well… since I'm the only girl, I get the changing rooms last or first; whichever I prefer. I chose last today. So when I'd finished showering, I was just pulling my jeans on and….and Sirius walked in!" Rosie's blush intensified and Lily started laughing madly.

"You're kidding!? Tell me you're kidding!" Rosie shook her head glumly, which just made Lily burst into louder hysterics.

* * *

James walked out of his room to loud laughing and multiple loud thumps, which turned out to have been Rosie throwing the pillows embellished with the Gryffindor crest at Lily's giggling form.

"Rosie!Down girl!" James had come up behind Rosie and grabbed the pillow just as she was about to throw it.

Rosie looked at James and scowled, but released the pillow and sat on the couch with a huff.

Looking between both girls, with confusion wrinkling his brow, he asked, "Why was Rosie trying to kill you Lil- Evans?" James silently cursed himself for his slip up. Rosie shook her head, clearly too mortified to tell James, who she'd always seen in an older brother sort of way. Lily gladly stepped in, a huge smirk gracing her face.

"Rosie was just in her bra and knickers and Sirius walked into the change rooms!"

James looked at Lily and Rosie, his mouth hanging open before he began chuckling.

Rosie gave them both an angry glare before storming through the room but when she opened the portrait door, Lily and James burst into louder fits of laugher.

Sirius was at the door, his eyes widening slightly and a rush of color racing into his cheeks. Pushing past him, Rosie hurried off, leaving Sirius standing in the doorway to the Head's Dorms, a bewildered expression staining his face. After a few tension filled seconds, he turned in the opposite direction and hurried off.

* * *

As James and Lily patrolled the corridors they were still laughing over what had happened between Rosie and Sirius.

"Poor Sirius, he's not going to be able to get that out of his mind now!" Lily laughed at James's comment and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Poor Rosie! She'll be having nightmares now."

James gave Lily a fake, angry glare, but a part of him was slightly annoyed at what she'd said.  
"Sirius is not that bad! Rosie puts up with him." Lily raised an eyebrow and smirked.  
"Yeah, puts up with him Potter. She's never going to be with him, he should realize that."

Suddenly the easy-going mood between them disappeared, burnt away like kindling in a fire. James looked at her angrily.  
"How do you know that Evans!? Can't you see the way they look at each other? Or are you that blind that you can't see love when it's right in front of your bloody face?!"

Lily turned around and glared at him, she'd been a few feet in front of him, her jaw set stubbornly. "He's only interested in her because she's an easy shag!" Regretting the words as soon as they'd left her mouth, Lily clamped her hands over her lips, her eyes widening. James looked about ready to kill.  
"How dare you! Rosie is your best friend and you've just called her a slag! And Sirius is _my _best mate, don't you dare think you can insult him in front of me!" Lily glared back at him and snapped.

"Well, it's the truth! Look at her! Strutting around in that uniform of hers, leaving _nothing _to the imagination! No wonder men grope her and wolf whistle, yet she still over reacts!" Lily was in too deep, she couldn't take back what she'd said now, and James definitely wasn't going to hear anymore of it.

He looked at her coldly, not really seeing the girl he'd fallen in love with, seeing a familiar stranger. They shared Lily's face, her voice but they didn't share her love and compassion.

"I'm going to change the patrol schedule, or I'm going to patrol alone. I'd rather that then patrol with you!" He turned on his heel and stalked off down the hall, muttering to himself under his breath, leaving a hurt and bewildered Lily to gaze after him, full of regret.

She was mortified, simply mortified. She loved Rosie; she was like a sister to Lily and didn't judge on looks alone and what had she gone and done? She'd gone and called her best friend a slag, jealous of all the attention she was getting from the school. Well not just the school, mostly James Potter.

Rosie and James were constantly hugging and James was always picking her up and carrying her places. It had made Lily crazy jealous and she guessed it had over flowed and made her do something regretfully stupid.

She'd been stupid and now he didn't even want to see her again. Lily sat down on the floor with a sigh, in all honesty, she wouldn't even want to see her again.

James had always used to tell her he loved how sweet and kind she was, compassionate and empathetic, and in the space of ten minutes she'd sent his opinion of her crashing to the earth like a satellite knocked out of orbit.

* * *

Songs;

Animal I Have Become~ Three Days Grace

Had Enough~ Breaking Benjamin

Best of You~ Foo Fighters


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6; **

**Disclaimer;**This amazing series of books isnt mine, but Rosie Hunter is.

* * *

James was stalking down the corridor, patrolling on his own as he had been doing for the past week. He heard the softest, sweetest sound of music coming from one of the empty classrooms. Well, it had been empty when he'd checked it an hour ago. He assumed a student must have snuck out and he wasn't entirely sure what they'd been doing. He really couldn't care less right now. Currently everything had been on thin ice. Rosie and Sirius couldn't look at each other without Rosie either commenting about nonexistent cobwebs or both of them running in the opposite direction.

What was worse was that during Quidditch practice they wouldn't look at each other so they had quaffles and bludgers flying in every direction imaginable. It was driving the other team mates and James insane.

Then there was the Lily situation. Peeves had overheard Lily basically calling Rosie a slag and had told the whole school, come morning. Rosie had been hurt and frustrated and had taken refuge with the Marauders, which made it so much more complicated. If Rosie was there, Sirius had to go somewhere else. If Sirius was there, Rosie had to go somewhere else. Also the boys had started splitting, two guys going with Rosie and one with Sirius.

There were always two of them with Rosie since the whole school had joined onto Lily's cause and she was being shunned as the school slag. If boys had been bad before, they were surprisingly terrible now. James could see the hurt shining in Rosie's eyes every time someone called her a slag, especially since it had been her _best friend _who had started the so-called campaign.

The fact that it had been Lily had made James angrier. He desperately wanted to know what had happened to the fiery, energetic, kind, compassionate girl he'd met. All he saw now was someone playing with someone's feelings for the sake of it.

* * *

The beautiful, melodic music called to him and he opened the door to reveal Rosie Hunter, enthusiastically lost in the music of her violin. She was only illuminated by hundreds of candles lying around the room, making the scene in front of him look bewitching. James stood and watched her, gob smacked, he knew he didn't know _everything _about Rosie, but this, this was definitely new to him. The music was so melancholy James felt his heart ache, it was as if Rosie was fueling all her emotions about her current situation into the instrument and making her music heart breaking and enchanting.

It was like he was in a daze until she stopped playing abruptly. "James?" She asked quietly, slightly startled in seeing him. James just nodded and closed the door behind him, smiling in wonder. "Rosie…that...that was beautiful." She smiled faintly and returned her violin to it's case. "I wrote it myself…since recent events." James nodded as she buckled up the case then leant against the desk, brushing away a few stray hairs.  
"So James…are you going to give me detention?" James shook his head and picked up a stack of parchments with funny lines and symbols drawn on them in Rosie's familiar hand.

"You're having a hard enough time, I don't need to add detention to it, Rosie." She sent him a grateful smile and gently took the stack of sheets off him, shoving them into the violin case.  
"What are they?" James asked curiously as she slung the case over her back and extinguished the candles she'd lit in the room with a flick of her wand.

Rosie smiled slightly. "Sheet music; so I know what notes to play." He still looked slightly confused so Rosie just shook her head and lightly claimed his arm, dragging him towards his dorm.

"You need a good sleep. We've got the Qudditch match tomorrow. We've already defeated Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and we'll dominate against Slytherin!" She said enthusiastically, jumping up and down slightly. James laughed and shook his head slightly, wrapping his arm around Rosie's shoulders. Before every Qudditch match she acted exactly the same. She would get overly hyperactive and would give Sirius and himself a headache, but now they were missing a part of the equation; Sirius. He missed having all his friends in the same spot, hopping back and forth was really getting on his and Remus's nerves and poor Peter was too guilty to say anything so he didn't make a comment.

* * *

Rosie hugged James briefly when they reached his dorm before leaving quickly. James knew why, she didn't want to face Lily.

James closed the portrait door as softly as possible before disappearing into his room and showering. After he'd showered and had pulled on his pajama bottoms he sprawled on his bed and placed his glasses on the beside table. A slightly cold wind caressed his bare skin and wet hair but he didn't mind, he liked sleeping with the windows open and could never sleep if they were closed. He was replaying the soft, slightly haunting melody of Rosie's music in his head as he allowed sleep wrap him in it's embrace of ignorance.

* * *

A soft knock on his bedroom door woke him and he sat up, fumbling for his wand on his bedside table and knocking down a bunch of things in the process. When he finally had his wand in his hand, he used it to light a few candles and then sat up, rubbing the back of his head sleepily. His vision was blurry since he hadn't crammed his glasses on.

"Who is it?" He called out sleepily, stretching slightly and grabbing his glasses off the bedside table.

Lily's soft voice rang out to meet him, so James begrudgingly got out of bed, suppressing a yawn as he opened the door quickly.

"What? Do you know what time it is?" His words were slightly harsh, as he looked her over.

Her hair was pooling down her back in delicate waves and the long t-shirt she slept in was rumbled. Her eyes had dark circles under them and she was slightly pale.

"I-I…I had a nightmare…" She whispered, shifting her gaze down to his feet. James crossed his arms over his bare chest and raised an eyebrow. "What do you want me to do about i-" He broke off when he realized she was shaking violently. He gently scooped her into his arms and kicked the door closed, carrying her over to his bed and laying her there.

James sat beside her and gently took her hand, all his anger about what she'd done to Rosie disappearing.

"Hey, what's wrong? Why are you shaking?" She looked up at him through scared eyes before throwing her arms around his neck and burying her head into his chest. He could feel her tears falling onto his skin and defying the rules of life, wherever her tears fell made heat shoot through him. He stroked her hair supporting and held her while she cried, whispering empty words of comfort into her ear.

* * *

Finally, when her sobs turned into tiny hiccups, James pulled away and gently wiped one of her tears away with his thumb. "Hey, talk to me Ev-Lily. Tell me what happened." Lily nodded, and hiccupped again, pushed her hair out of her face.

'You know who…" Was all she whispered, before cutting off with a slightly choking sound, as if just saying 'you know who' made her frightened.

James nodded and lay down, pulling her down beside him. "Here, you go to sleep. I'll sleep on the floor." Ghosting a kiss onto her temple, he started to go to lie on the floor when Lily caught his hand, her teeth delicately gnawing on her bottom lip.

"No…it's your bed…please...can we just share? I'm scared…and that's what my dad used to do when I was scared…" James nodded and lay down besides her, wrapping his arm around her waist and hugging her to him, her soft, untroubled breathing tickling his chest as he yet again welcomed sleep.

* * *

**Authors** note; Here's some Jily :D

Songs;

Fix You~ Coldplay

Shadows~ Lindsey Stirling (The song Rosie's playing on her violin)

Scared to Feel~ Lelia Broussard


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7; **

**Disclaimer; ** I don't own this amazing series of books except, Rosie Hunter, Annasatasia Hanning, Brad Caseys, Hedley Collins.

Hope you enjoy~ xoxox

* * *

James woke up to find his bed empty, he let his hand stretch out against the bed but he didn't feel a soft, red headed girl, he just felt air and the stupid cotton sheets he'd always hated.

Nothing, it must've been a dream.

He sat up abruptly and rubbed the back of his head as he yawned, his other hand fumbling for his glasses.

As he grabbed his glasses, he noticed a thin piece of parchment wrapped around it. He crammed his glasses onto his face then read the parchment. In her unfamiliar, loopy script was written;

_Dear James, _

_Thank you for last night. I know I'm not your favorite person right now, but I never meant to say any of those things about Rosie. Or Sirius. You're right, I do see the way they look at each other, the way they act in each other's company…I guess I always just assumed Rosie would never date, with how she always rejected guys, and let alone Sirius Black. _

_I said those things because I was jealous. I hardly see my best friend anymore because she's with you guys and I miss her. I was angry and I kept it hidden and it wasn't the smartest thing to do, not when I knew I'd eventually explode. _

_And I guess, I can't believe I'm writing this, I guess I'm jealous of how you two act around each other. _

_You've always got your arms around one another, or you're carrying her places or you're playing Qudditch and I've just been jealous. Really jealous. _

_~L_

James stared at the note in disbelief. It hadn't been a dream. It hadn't been a dream. He felt his heart speed up slightly. Then he paused. She was jealous…of Rosie.

He wanted to elaborate on that but decided against it, he had a commitment to his team mates and he had to get down to the match, which James was extra excited for. He always looked forward to the first time he got to beat Slytherin during the year.

James hurried out of his bed and showered quickly, pulled on his clothes and bolted down to the Great Hall, where he saw that Rosie was talking to Annastasia Hanning or Stasia as everyone called her, the Ravenclaw seeker. James had always liked the girl, she was smart, kind and didn't judge people on rumors like a lot of the students tended to be doing lately.

She had a sandy, blonde hair that hung in loose curls down her back and she had intelligent, warm brown eyes with flecks of yellow in them. She had a scar running from the corner of her right eye to her right ear.

Stasia's small, slight build was perfect for her position as seeker and when she saw James, she waved at him and continued talking to Rosie in soft tones.

Curiosity getting the better of him, James came and stood beside Rosie, his brow furrowed. "What's wrong?" Rosie looked at James and his eyes widened, her eyes, as customary for every Qudditch match, had one turned deep red and another gold for Gryffindor, both filled to the brim with tears.

Gasping slightly, James looked at Stasia and frowned, one of his arms wrapping around Rosie's shoulders and pulling her into his side tightly.

"What did you tell Rosie, Stasia?" Stasia hesitated and let out a deep breath, almost as if it hurt _her _to repeat whatever she'd told Rosie.

"All the guys on the Ravenclaw Qudditch team are saying that you beat them because Rosie said she'd shag them if they threw the game, so they threw the game and they got a free shag. And Hufflepuff. The Slytherins said she offered but they rejected her because she was a muggleborn."

Anger spiked up in James's chest and he held Rosie to him tighter, wanting to protect her from all the people out to hurt her.

"Thank you for telling us Stasia." James said, giving the girl a warm smile. Stasia returned the smile and placed her hand on Rosie's arm gently. "For what it's worth, I know you'd never do anything like that Ro."

Rosie nodded her thanks, a few tears spilling from her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. Noticing this, James started walking her out of the Hall, quickening his pace as more people entered the Hall, so that none of them could talk about her.

* * *

As they walked towards the pitch, Rosie pleaded with James. "Don't tell Sirius…please…" James frowned but nodded his consent as he nudged her into the change rooms after he'd checked if anyone was occupying it. "Go get changed, and hurry. I can see the rest of the team." He was beyond angry, he didn't think it was fair for everyone to be suddenly calling Rosie a slag and worse, when she hadn't even gone on a date till the end of sixth year.

While Rosie was changing, James had a quick word to the team, warning them to be careful around Rosie as she was one of their best chasers and they couldn't afford her not playing. Not that she wouldn't play, Rosie would probably try to play even if she'd broken half the bones in her body, and James admired her for that.

* * *

After they were ready and the roars of the crowd grew louder, the teams flew onto the pitch. As both teams flew around the pitch a few times as a warm up, the Slytherins started singing a very rude song about Rosie. James was watching her as he shook hands with the captain and could see she was angry, beyond angry.  
Rosie Hunter looked murderous.

* * *

The game started and Rosie grabbed the quaffle, lightning fast and zoomed off down the pitch, not even pausing as she threw the quaffle at James who took it forward and passed it back to her.

She scored and Gryffindor cheered. That's when the Slytherin's song got louder and clearer, and someone even began conducting the words in the air. Professor McGonagall screamed at the person over the magically voice enhancing microphone and everyone cringed slightly as their ears rung.

* * *

The pattern continued on like that for about half an hour, Rosie and James throwing it back and forth, taking alternating turns at scoring. The third seeker was their back up plan; the other team always seemed to forget about him, which made him the perfect secret weapon. That's when Rosie broke the pattern.

James watched as Rosie flew up so she was level with their Seeker, Hedley Collins, she was whispering something to him when the Slytherin beater hit a bludger directly at her and knocked her clean off her broom. Rosie hadn't been expecting it, so she didn't hold on as she fell.

James felt his heart drop down to his feet, Rosie was up high, and if no one caught her soon, when she hit the ground she might not live. He was about ready to fly off to try and catch her before she hit the ground but their other chaser, Brad Caseys threw the quaffle at James. James sent Brad a murderous look and was about to dispatch the quaffle so he could try to save Rosie, when Sirius grabbed her.

It wasn't the best way to grab her, though. He'd just gotten a hold of her wrist and James heard it snap as Sirius's hand was all that had stopped her from plummeting closer to the ground. She was dangling slightly by her wrist and she looked to be in pain, but James's heart filled with relief and he let out a long breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

He could see Sirius sigh in relief also and try to pull her up, struggling slightly with his broom, beater's bat and Rosie, but she just shook her head and said something back that he could barely hear, as the crowd yelled out; Hedley had caught the snitch and was holding it high in the air in triumph.

* * *

James flew over to Sirius and Rosie and helped get her get onto Sirius's broom. Sirius began inspecting her wrist thoroughly, making sure to be gentle with her.

"Snapped." James said bluntly, already knowing what was wrong with the wrist and trying not to let Sirius prod it too much, Rosie let out a giant sigh of relief.

"Thank Merlin you caught her Sirius." James said, clapping his mate of the back. Sirius nodded and hugged Rosie to him slightly. "Your wrist…I'm sorry…" She brushed him off and pointed at the ground. "If you hadn't have grabbed me, I'd be a pancake. I know I'm delicious, but I'd rather not be a pancake, thank you very much."

Sirius gave a short laugh, reminded her to hold on tight, joking that they wouldn't want a repeat of what just happened and started flying off towards the Hospital Wing, James suppressed a smile, nothing like a life threatening situation to make your friends forget about their unresolved sexual tension.

* * *

Songs;

Lean on Me~ Bill Withers

Get'cha Head in the Game~ High School Musical (DONT ASK!)

Fall for You~ Secondhand Serenade


	8. Chapter 8

**_Disclaimer;_**** I dont own this amazing series, although Rosie Hunter is mine. **

**Authors Note: This chapter is in Sirius's POV (point of view) there will occasionally be a few chapters in the other Marauders and Rosie's POV's. **

**Chapter 8; **

* * *

When people said Madam Pomfrey could mend bones in a minute, they weren't joking to Sirius's continued relief. The nurse had fixed Rosie's wrist in a moment yet Sirius was still worried out of his mind. He couldn't get the second Rosie had fallen out of his head, or how his heart had settled somewhere in his feet when he realized they hadn't been talking.

* * *

He'd flown up to the top of the Astronomy Tower, not really wanting to risk running into Filch and knowing it would take longer to walk Rosie up to the Hospital Wing. Once he'd landed, he'd propped his broom up against the railing of the tower and scooped Rosie into his arms, bridal style and started carrying her to the Hospital Wing.

Most of the walk, Rosie had continually insisted that she could walk on her own, after all, she'd only damaged her wrist and she was _not _an invalid but Sirius would not hear a word of it. As he carried it, he could have sworn that he saw the faintest tint of color flush on Rosie's pale cheeks, but he convinced himself he was just seeing things.

Rosie Hunter had no interest in him what so ever.

When they'd reached the Hospital Wing, he'd carefully laid her on the bed, trying not to accidently jostle her now swollen and bruised looking wrist. Madam Pomfrey had hurried over and re-set the damaged bone and Sirius, usually not squeamish in the least had to look away as he saw Rosie bite her lip to stifle a scream. Once the bone was back in it's original position, or round about, Madam Pomfrey mended the bone with a flick of her wand and a few muttered words.

* * *

Rosie was rolling her wrist tentatively as Sirius sat beside her on the stark, white bed, watching her intently, as if she was a dream that would disappear in an instant. She caught him watching her and beamed at him, which just made him look away quickly, analyzing the room.

Both of them still decked out in their scarlet Qudditch robes, greatly contrasted with the bland decorations. There were about twelve beds lined up at parallel positions in the room, all covered in immaculate, snowy sheets and perfectly made, not one crinkle littering the surface of Madam Pomfrey's hard work. Every bed had their own side table with a book and a clean glass there filled with flowers that brought the only splash of color to the wing.

After a few long, tense moments Sirius finally looked back at Rosie, regret shining in his eyes. "I really am sorry about your wrist, Rosie." Sirius felt extremely guilty. It was, after all, his fault that she'd broken her wrist and had been apologizing profusely since he'd pulled her onto his broom. Watching her closely, he saw her roll her eyes and give him a one armed hug. They didn't speak for multiple moments and when she did, her voice was soft and in his ear. "Will you please stop apologizing?! For Merlin's sake Sirius, if you hadn't have grabbed me we probably wouldn't be having this conversation."

Suppressing his grin, proved to not be an option as he talked to her. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed her. Every one of her annoying habits he seemed to miss, especially her morning wake-up calls. But most of all, he missed that cheeky smile and the amused glint that always sparkled in her ever-changing eyes.

He realized she hadn't retracted her arm from around his shoulders; so, he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her slender waist and pulled her closer to him. His heart sped up, but he pushed it to the back of his mind.

"I've missed you." He murmured as he buried his head into her slightly rumpled hair. The soft smell of vanilla and roses accompanied the soft, silkiness.

"When I saw you fall…I just couldn't get the fact that we weren't talking out of my head…I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if something happened to you Rosie…"

Rosie's hand came up and started stroking his hair lightly, trying to prove her affection through the action alone.

"I missed you too…"

Warmth spread through him at the fact of how close they both were, how nice she smelt. Vanilla had always attracted him and Rosie Hunter definitely had a way of making him forget how to breathe, vanilla or not.

* * *

They stayed like that for a long while, time melting away like snow in sunlight. Rosie continued to stroke his hair as he inhaled vanilla and roses with every shaky breath. He was literally forcing himself to breath, finding it hard to keep the simple movement up when she was just so close to him…

Both of them would have probably stayed like that much longer if someone hadn't loudly cleared their throats before letting out a loud chorus of chuckles. Rosie and Sirius both shot apart awkwardly to see Remus Lupin, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Lily Evans looking at them, all wearing identical smirks. "Well, well, what do we have here?" James's voice sliced through the awkward silence, filled to the brim with amusement at the compromising position he had found his friends in.

Rosie looked up at the roof and started commenting on nonexistent cobwebs in a slightly shaky voice. "Isn't that a nice cobweb? I really like that cobweb. I would totally decorate my dorm with that cobweb…" Everyone in the room looked at Rosie, and Sirius knew for sure that if they didn't know and love the girl exactly how she was, they would have assumed she was mental.

James took a look between everyone and sighed deeply, giving Sirius a look that clearly said; "Later." He paused for a moment before looking at Madam Pomfrey. "Can we take this midget with us and leave you in peace?" Madam Pomfrey smiled, nodded and walked away, shaking her head in exasperation as James grabbed Rosie's hand and pulled her to her feet and out the door, the others following behind them.

* * *

Songs;

Count on Me~ Bruno Marz

Big Jet Plane~ Angus and Julia Stone

Never Let Me Go~ Florence and the Machine


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9:**_

_**Disclaimer; **_I do not own this amazing series of books, only Rosie Hunter.

* * *

If he'd thought Rosie and Sirius would _finally _get together after the incident in the Hospital Wing, he was frustratingly wrong. They were friends again, thank Merlin, but they were acting as if they hadn't been very close to each other in the Hospital Wing. It was infuriating, but at least they were on talking terms.

Talking was good. Friendship was good, but he knew for a fact that Sirius craved more.

Rosie…well, he wasn't so sure about Rosie.

He couldn't exactly tell if she was interested in him or not and to add to the stupid problem, Lily's nightmares continued and she was in his bed every night. He'd hold her and whisper comforting words in her ear until she welcomed the blissful ignorance sleep brought.

Except…James Potter was not a saint and being oh so close to her was definitely getting to him. Lily also refused to acknowledge she was basically sleeping in James Potter's bed.

She _was _talking to him more though, and slowly, he was seeing the fiery, compassionate, energetic girl he'd fallen for. He refused to ask her out again until the old Lily was back.

The Lily he loved.

* * *

"Patronuses," Flitwick started as he strolled in front of the class of students, waving his wand absently and casting multiple different coloured sparks. "Are a very important aspect to learn and not every witch or wizard has the magnificent ability to cast a patronus."

James could barely contain his grin and he started jumping up and down in his seat enthusiastically, earning him a glare from Remus who was taking notes. Flitwick muttered a quick spell and a silvery form shot out of his wand to stand in front of the students, luminous and breath taking. Peter was staring at it with a very "deer in headlights" expression, causing James and Sirius to chuckle to each other.

The little mouse scurried around the room and most of the girls erupted into "oohs" and "ahs". The boys on the other hand all grinned at each other and loudly chorused, "Wicked."

* * *

James had been absently drawing on the corner of Remus's parchment and only looked up when a piece of paper, shaped like a bird, hit him on the back of the head as it landed directly in front of Sirius. A grin lit up his face as he mouthed to James, "Rosie's work." James grinned as well; Rosie was infamous for her gorgeous note bird spells. Usually, everybody got a different breed of bird, only if she had the time, if she was hurry it was usually a sparrow.

Rosie Hunter adored sparrows.

Peeking over Sirius's shoulder, James saw written in Rosie's familiar, messy script;

* * *

_Dear Sirius, _

_I'm so sorry I didn't meet you in the library last night. I was…held up. Meet me there tonight? Usual time. _

_~Rosie _

* * *

A smirk glided onto James's face, Rosie and Sirius had been making secret plans that he didn't know about. He started making up scenarios in his head and then he caught Sirius give him a fierce shake of his head, already knowing what his best mate was thinking and shooting down the idea.

"She's helping me with my essay! Nothing more!" James chuckled a little _too _loud and was just about to say something more when Flitwick's voice cut through the air, sharp and ferocious.

"Black! Potter! Come up here now!" Both boys shared a mortified look before pulling on identical smirks and strutting to the front of the class, their hands shoved into their trouser pockets. James could see Peter staring at both of them adoringly, while Remus was just shaking his head in an exasperated fashion.

"Yes Professor?" Sirius asked casually, meeting Rosie's eyes and catching the warning glance she shot his way as Flitwick's face grew red and he looked infuriated.  
"Since you both were talking through my explanation of the patronus charm, I will take your seats and you will both explain the charm to the rest of the students."

With that, Flitwick turned on his heel and strolled back to the two boy's seats, taking Sirius's, and leaving them to stand at the front of the room awkwardly. James felt mortified, sure, he used to talk during lessons all the time, but since he'd been Head Boy he'd at least _tried _to behave.

James and Sirius shared a look as James ran his hand through his hair, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to decide how to worm his way out of this one. He knew _nothing _about the charm, he'd been listening until he'd gotten distracted and only word vomit came out of his mouth;

"Ah…patronuses…right…"

* * *

That's when something caught James eye and he raised an eyebrow and nudged Sirius slightly, making him look at Rosie who was waving her arms at the boys and started conducting words in the air with her wand. Rosie was seated two rows behind Flitwick, so he didn't seem to notice the dazzling, gold words lighting up the air and explaining patronuses. She had the book in one arm and the other miming the words with her wand.

Without missing a beat, Sirius began repeating what she was writing.

"Patronuses are a happy, pure force. They are used to ward off Dementors. Each person has a different patronus that represents their personalities and souls."

Bewilderment and slight bemusement filled Flickwick's face as James took over the explanation effortlessly, strolling back and forth in front of the class.

"It is not uncommon for lovers or close family members to share the same patronus, as it reflects their love for each other."

Nodding in approval, Flitwick gestured for them to continue their explanation, probably hoping to catch the boys, well more accurately Rosie, off guard, but he didn't.

The girl didn't miss a beat and continued casting the explanations.

"To create a patronus, you need to think of an extremely happy memory, a memory that can always make you laugh or smile. Allow that happy memory to fill you up and then, " Sirius paused for dramatic effect and James rolled his eyes and slapped his friend on the back of the head as the silence grew awkward.

"You have a patronus folks!" Sirius spluttered, sending James a glare as he broke into loud guffaws of laughter.

Flitwick nodded in approval at the explanation and got up from his chair and strolled back to the front of the glass, gesturing for Sirius and James to return to their seats. "Okay students, time to practice. Now don't be upset or disappointed if you don't get it the first time. Practice does indeed, make perfect."

* * *

All the students dispatched, eager to get started on the charm, and James and the rest of the Marauders watched with a great amount of amusement as Sirius grabbed Rosie into a tight hug and spun her around enthusiastically, whispering into her ear all the while. He could hear Rosie laughing as she tried to get out of the tight hug. When Sirius finally returned her to the ground, she shoved him off in the direction of the rest of the Marauders.

Once Sirius returned to his mates, all the Marauders had very large smirks pulled onto their faces. "Just ask her out again, mate." Remus said as he double-checked the book on the wand movement of the patronus charm.

James nodded but Sirius only shook his head and started rolling his sleeves up. "I can't guys, remember? I promised sixth year I'd never ask her out again."

James remembered the day pretty well, Rosie and Sirius's friendship had been on edge since he asked her out every second day, so, from Lily's suggestion Rosie had made Sirius promise to never ask her out again and if he did, their friendship would be over.

Sirius sounded slightly crestfallen, and James gave Remus and Peter a look that said; "Let the guy be." –as Sirius started attempting the new charm.

* * *

Photograph~ Nickelback

Catch My Disease~ Ben Lee

Happiness~ Alexis Jordan


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10; **_

_**Disclaimer; **_I don't own this amazing series of books, but I do own Rosie Hunter and Tenerious McLaggen.

_**Author's note; Okay, a bit of this chapter is a bit inappropriate (Most McLaggen talking)**_

* * *

Muttering the spell for what seemed like the millionth time, James noticed Tenerious McLaggen skulk up and start practicing beside Sirius, a rather large, stuck up smirk gracing his face. James caught Remus give him a wary glance before continuing with the charm.

Finally, after a few moments filled to the maximum with the Marauders constantly casting McLaggen looks filled with curiosity, he spoke up. James had always hated McLaggen's voice. He hated the way he drawled the words and how his tone was always obnoxious and self centered.

* * *

"Hey Black, did you know where Hunter was last night?" He asked in a nonchalant voice, but James could hear the mocking, sarcastic tone behind it. By the tone, James knew there was no way this conversation would end well.

Sirius gave McLaggen a wary look and shrugged. "No idea. She was held up somewhere and couldn't meet me in the library."

James instantly knew that was what McLaggen had wanted Sirius to say, his grin widening and growing slightly animalistic. Out of the corner of his eye, James continued watching the exchange while pretending to practice the charm.

"Of course you didn't know where she was Black. She was in _my _bed. You'd have thought she'd give herself to _you _first, though."

A quick look at Sirius confirmed James's suspicions that his best mate shared how he felt. He looked like he was ready to kill. James felt exactly the same. Rosie was as good as a sister to him and he adored her just about as much as Alison. Sure they fought like crazy and hit each other with various objects on a daily basis, but they loved each other.

* * *

The fact that Sirius was now looking murderous didn't stop McLaggen from continuing his bragging.

"If you think she looks stunning with those clothes on, imagine if you got them off her. Of course, _you'd _have to imagine. _I _on the other hand had the real thing." Sirius's jaw was clenched tightly, his hands balled into tight fists and resting on his thighs. His eyes kept flickering over to Rosie, who was laughing with Lily and still trying to cast the patronus charm, unaware of what was going on because of her.

Well, James didn't really blame her. He blamed McLaggen and his sick, perverted mind. James could tell Sirius's self-control was close to breaking and Merlin help McLaggen when it did.

"She basically begged to suck me Black. Begged. Those lips and that tongue, makes you come in seconds." James felt his anger spike and he could tell Sirius was no longer trying to hold back, only trying to figure out the best way to maim or seriously injure McLaggen.

Obviously, the thickheaded git didn't realize this and kept going with his disgusting comments.

"And if you touch her just right…she makes the softest sounds…drives you nu-UTS!" Finally Sirius had had enough, and had grabbed McLaggen by his collar and shoved him forcefully against the brick wall. One of Sirius's forearms came to rest on his windpipe threateningly.

"Don't you dare say those things about Rosie!" Sirius's voice was low and menacing, a warning to McLaggen, which he didn't seem to pick up as he kept going, pushing Sirius's control to absolute breaking point.

"And she absolutely looses it if you lick he-" He cut off with a loud chocking sound as Sirius pressed his arm on the boy's windpipe, cutting off his air supply. Sirius's mouth was drawn into a hard, angry line. James felt the same, but just leaned against his desk and let Sirius deal with it. Sirius was always very protective of Rosie and if James intervened, he'd have to have his revenge another way.

* * *

James jumped when he heard Rosie's voice cut through the tense silence that had fallen over the students and Flitwidk once McLaggen had made the strangled scream.

"Sirius Orion Black! Put him down, right now!" She stalked over to Sirius and stood in a way so he could see her properly. She looked at him with kind, concerned eyes and James saw Sirius's anger rise. James felt his _own _anger rise. Here was a kind, sweet girl defending someone who was making up rumors that made her sound like a slag.

"Sirius, drop him. He isn't worth it." She said in a much softer, gentler voice, her hand coming to rest on his shoulder.

Sirius didn't pull his eyes away from McLaggen, watching the boy struggle for air for a few seconds, his hands clawing at Sirius's forearm as his lips turned blue, before stepping back and letting him fall to the floor, desperately gasping for air to refill his empty lungs.

Rosie grabbed Sirius's arm and pulled him away from McLaggen, whispering so softly to him that James's couldn't hear a word of it. All he knew was that he saw the anger melt from Sirius's face as he spoke with Rosie in undertones.

* * *

James watched McLaggen warily, not really happy about being left with the scum bag who was scrambling to his feet, rubbing his throat where there was already a red mark forming in the shape of Sirius's forearm.

"I…I…d-don't…know…why…you…haven't…had…a…go….yet….Potter. We…all…know…she'd…do…it…in…a…second."

James just looked at him blankly, before punching him straight across the face. He felt the bone protest then snap under his hand and McLaggen was knocked to the floor from the force of the punch.

"Don't talk about my sister like that McLaggen." Growled James as he watched the boy tenderly rub his broken jaw.

"Nggjot sijster…" Hr mumbled, his words slightly slurred and incoherent but James still got the message.

"She's as good as." James said as he walked away from the injured boy. Flitwick finally snapped into action and shouted;

"Miss Hunter! Mister Black and Potter, Head Master's office!"

All three students just stared at him for a moment, as if in a daze, only blinking stupidly. Flitwick's anger spiked at this.

"NOW!"

All three students quickly shared a look, ran off and shoved their supplies into their bags and hurried out of the room, a disgruntled Flitwick left to deal with a loudly complaining McLaggen.

Thank Merlin none of his complaints made any sense. Well, in actual fact, thank James Potter.

* * *

Songs;

You're Going Down~ Sick Puppies

Animal~ Three Days Grace

Best of You~ Foo Fighters

The Pretender~ Foo Fighters

Take A Hint~ Victorious cast


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11;**_

_**Disclaimer; I don't own this amazing series, but I do own Rosie Hunter. **_

* * *

With a great deal of curiosity, James watched Lily sigh and read the parchment in her hand again, her face falling slightly as her eyes scanned over Professor Slughorn's toad-like writing.

A smirk lit up his face as he leaned over and tapped the letter, pointing at the main paragraph.

"It's not going to change, Evans, no matter how much you read it. You're stuck with me."

She looked greatly annoyed and put her hands on her hips, an adorable wrinkle forming between her eyebrows.

"I thought I was stuck with Sirius. What happened to that?" James kept the smirk plastered on his face but he felt slightly upset at how she was currently reacting. Lily had had Sirius helping her grade essays for the last month, as his form of Detention. James and Rosie had been passed back and forth between teachers, doing odd jobs they needed doing.

"Slughorn has them brewing potions that he needs for upcoming classes. Amortenia and things like that. Since I melted through the cauldron last time, he requested that Sirius and I swap. Apparently, he couldn't afford to loose more than one cauldron a weekend."

Rosie, Sirius and James had been dealing with their detentions for the past month. Honestly, Rosie was only doing hers with the boys as a thank-you for sticking up for her. Also, Rosie was currently extremely amused at how McLaggen still couldn't talk properly after his run in with James's fist.

* * *

With a shrug, he leant back against the desk, gesturing to the large stacks of essays littering more than one of the tables.

"We better get started, huh?" James asked, his voice blank and full of boredom.

Lily sighed and sat at a desk, in front of a pile of papers that were way taller than her head height.  
"So, what are you doing for Christmas?"

James flinched slightly, she'd gone from sleeping in his bed every night, to polite and formal. Cold. He also hadn't taken into account that Christmas break was only a week away.

"Ah...the guys and Rosie are coming to stay with my uncle, Alison and I." He shrugged slightly and knew that Christmas was going to be slightly awkward for everyone, mostly for Rosie and Sirius, though.

* * *

A couple weeks ago, the rumours about Rosie had taken her to breaking point and she'd been crying in the forest. When she'd returned to the castle it was extremely late and she met Dumbledore on his way to get a mug of warm milk. He'd talked with Rosie briefly, before she bid him goodnight and hurried up to the Astronomy Tower. Later, Dumbledore had seen Sirius and had advised him to find Rosie and gave him her location.

Sirius had gone up to the Tower and talked with Rosie for a long while. He'd been leaning in to kiss her, when he heard a howl. He'd forgotten about the full moon and had run from the Tower. Rosie and Sirius were talking, but it was also overly formal. James yet again cursed them and their unresolved sexual tension.

* * *

"What are you doing for Christmas?" James asked to fill the awkward silence that had settled while he'd been off on memory lane. He hated awkward silences. With a passion.

Lily, who had been absently chewing on her quill, looked up and smiled that gorgeous faint smile of hers that always seemed to make his heart stop.

"Just spending it with Dad. Mum and Dad split during fourth year and Mum decided to spend Christmas with Petunia and her fiance." She rolled her eyes and had opened her mouth to say something else when a small first year burst into the room, looking quite frazzled.

"Miss Evans? Professor Dumbledore wants to see you..."

She frowned, but being the good girl she was, nodded and followed the first year.

And that was how James ended up correcting the endless stream of essays alone. James never realised how much he actually despised essays until that moment.

* * *

Walking back from detention, he ran into a fairly distracted Lily. Her head had been down and her soft, red hair was manoeuvred in a way so that it covered her eyes. He could hear her sniffling softly, so when he ran into her he lightly grabbed her wrist and didn't let go.

"Evans? Are you ok-" She'd thrown her arms around his shoulders and was crying into his chest before he'd even finished speaking.

Freezing for a moment, James felt his heart beat increase, but pushed it out of his mind, choosing to focus on the sobbing girl in his arms.

"Lily...come on. Talk to me. What's wrong?" She just shook her head and kept quiet, well, in saying quiet, she didn't talk, only soft sobs escaped her lips. James sighed softly, there was no way he could comfort her if he didn't know why she was crying into his chest uncontrollably. He stroked her hair and let her cry it all out, everything that was causing her heart pain.

Once Lily had nothing left to cry and soft hiccups were the only sounds escaping her soft, red lips, James held her at arm's length and studied her tear stained face. He felt his heart ache for her.  
"Tell me what's wrong." He ordered gently, trying to be as careful with her as possible. James Potter was never good at dealing with crying girls. Like when his little sister used to cry, he'd just awkwardly pat her on the back and think; "PLEASE STOP CRYING. PLEASE STOP CRYING."

A small sob escaped her again as she looked up at him, her vibrant, green eyes were red and puffy. "M-my parents...d-d-d-ead..." If he didn't think she could cry anymore, he was definitely wrong as he saw tears roll down her cheeks.

"Oh Lily..." He gently cupped her face in his hands, using his thumbs to tenderly wipe away the moist tears.

"D-d-eatheaters..." She whispered and James had to suppress a smirk as he watched her shiver slightly from his touch. But then what she'd said finally sunk in.

Death Eaters.

Killing muggles.

Without reason.

Oh that was definitely not good.

* * *

Songs;

Thinking of You~Katy Perry

You'll Be In My Heart~ Phil Collins

Just the Girl~ Click Five


	12. Chapter 12

_**Chapter 12; **_

_**Disclaimer; I don't own this series, only Rosie Hunter. **_

* * *

James held her tighter as the news sunk in. Lily's parents were dead. And not just that...they'd been killed by Death Eaters. That's what really confused him. He couldn't comprehend why they would have killed her parents, as they were muggles. The only thing that was nagging at his mind was Snivellus. The thought itself was cruel, especially when he had a sobbing Lily Evans in his arms.

'Lily...what about Christmas?" He asked finally, the silence that had fallen while he'd been freaking out mentally had gotten on his nerves. Well, it wasn't really silence, not with Lily breaking into small sobs every few moments as the news sunk in further.

"I-I don't know...stay here with Rosie probably..." Her voice was full of unshed tears as it shook with the effort of not breaking into heart wrenching sobs.

James felt his heart break slightly as he knew he'd have to explain to Lily that she wouldn't be able to spend Christmas with her best friend because Rosie was staying with James and the rest of the Marauders.

"Uh...Lily...Rosie is spending Christmas with me and the guys. I'm really sorry..." He watched as Lily's face fell and her eyes filled with tears again and he felt like he'd been hit with the Cruciartus curse.  
"But, you're welcome to join us..." James said quickly, his heart already aching at how hurt and upset she looked. Also, he couldn't let her be alone on Christmas...especially after her parents deaths...it would have been inhumane.

He watched as her face lit up, his own heart lifting slightly. "If it's okay...with your parents..." James felt an ache run through him but he suppressed it as he pressed a tiny kiss to her forehead. "It's more than okay."

* * *

When James returned to the Gryffindor common room, he saw Rosie and Sirius sitting across from each other playing wizard chess and by the small furrow in Rosie's brow and her angry expression, he could tell Sirius was winning. "I thought you two agreed to never play this the _last _time Rosie lost..." James chuckled and sat down beside Rosie.

Glad for a distraction, Rosie looked up and grinned at James. Her dark auburn hair was pulled off her face, for once in her life, in a messy ponytail and her eyes were a such a vibrant green, that Lily and her could've been sisters. Twins, actually.

She had on a slightly revealing top, that he could tell was driving Sirius nuts. She'd been doing that a lot lately.

James knew now that Rosie was crazy about Sirius, and when he'd ran off during the full moon, he'd hurt her. A lot. Rosie had reverted back to fifth year Rosie, the one who was much more sarcastic and had caused Sirius absolute misery with her hot and cold hints.

Sirius on the other hand, was just wearing a plain white t-shirt and jeans, his grey eyes trying not to wander over Rosie's body too much.

"James, now that you're here..I'm going to go visit Slughorn. I had to run an errand for him." She gave both boys a tiny bow before picking up her bag and leaving the common room, with Sirius staring after her longingly.

"So, how was detention?" James asked Sirius, a huge smirk gliding onto his face. James had been excused of detention that day to go with Lily and attend her parents funeral. Lily had been devastated when she found out it was on a Saturday, which had been her parents favourite day, and had begged James to come with her, needing someone who would comfort her to be at the event.

Amusement glittered in James's eyes as his best mate sighed warily.  
"We had to see if the Amortenia was complete, which meant we had to tell Slughorn what attracted us. What we smelt."

If he didn't believe it was possible at the time for his smile to get any bigger, he was very wrong, James's grin grew even wider.

"So...what attracts our dear, dear Rosie Posie, hmm?"

This is where Sirius groaned and buried his head in his hands. "Some kind of aftershave, rain and chocolate. None of those connect to me whatsoever Prongs. None." James kicked his best friend under the table and held up his hand. "One," He held up one finger before continuing. "You wear aftershave, a lot. And Rosie is always hugging you for long periods of time. Two," A second finger followed the first, "Rain. Uh, don't you remember? Your almost kiss was during a rain storm. And three," The last finger went up and James's smirks grew. "Camping, fifth year. Those huge bars of Honey Dukes chocolate you two powered through." James rolled his eyes at his friend and pointed at the chess game.  
"I could beat you."

Sirius raised an eyebrow in a challenge. "Bring it Prongsie."

* * *

Their game went on longer than they'd been meaning too, and when Rosie still hadn't returned, both boys shared a look of un-suppressed panic. Sirius pulled out the Marauder's map and quickly found Rosie's dot, but a frown quickly settled onto his face.

"Prongs...this inst right...she isn't moving..." James frowned and came to stand beside Sirius, looking at the map over his best mate's shoulder.

"You're right Pads, she isn't...we should go check on her."

Both boys nodded, and hurried out of the common room, using the map as a guide.

* * *

What they found, they honestly hadn't been expecting. They hadn't expected to find a sickly pale Rosie Hunter lying in a pool of blood. They didn't expect her arm to be covered in cuts. They didn't expect her breathing to be so faint...so soft...

Sirius flung the map at James and ran, crouching beside Rosie and trying to feel a pulse. It took him quite a while to locate one, James notice and he didn't think that was an extremely good sign. "There it is...it's faint though James... it's faint!" Sirius's voice was full of pain and panic and he absently wiped some blood off her arm and gagged. James literally saw Sirius gag as the words carved into her once smooth skin was revealed.

Filthy mudblood. Over and over. All varying sizes. All going to scar.

"Who would do this Prongs!? Who!?" Sirius pointed his wand at the cuts and tried a few simple healing spells Rosie had taught him, but all were ineffective. Nothing at all happened. James took a deep breath and pointed at the pale looking girl, his heart located somewhere in his feet. But he had to be strong, for Rosie.  
"Sirius, stop the bleeding. Don't give me that look, do something!" James ran down the hall and started knocking on doors frantically, calling out loudly until a teacher came out, who happened to be Slughorn.  
"My boy, what are you making such a hassle about!?" Slughorn chuckled and James clenched his fists tightly, the idiot was wasting time!  
"Rosie...bleeding!" The teacher looked at him in a daze and James couldn't take it anymore, he grabbed Slughorn's arm and pulled him to Rosie and Sirius. Sirius was holding shreds of cloth to her arm and the back of her head, trying to stop the bleeding. Desperately, James looked at Slughorn then back at Rosie and Sirius. "DO SOMETHING!" He screamed. His friend, no, his sister, was on that floor bleeding to death and all Slughorn could do was stare. Finally, he snapped out of it and pulled out his wand, sending a signal to Madam Pomfrey.

Madam Pomfrey got there just as Rosie Hunter's pulse faltered and stopped.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Author's note; Sorry for not posting a chapter sooner guys! I feel super bad, *DISGRACED AUTHOR LOOK* SO!, I have like four more chapters of this story for you that I need to type up :D They'll be up today. ~Love me**_

_**Chapter 13; **_

* * *

When people said that Madam Pomfrey was one of the best healers around, they weren't kidding. As soon as Sirius had proclaimed that he couldn't feel Rosie's pulse any longer, she'd pushed him urgently, yet gently, out of the way. Putting her ear close to Rosie's slightly open mouth, Madam Pomfrey signalled for everyone to be quiet, trying to hear if Rosie was breathing.

Breathing was good.

Breathing was alive.

"She's alive…barely. Horus, if you would please notify Albus about this young woman?" She straightened up and looked at a ghostly pale Sirius with concern crinkling her motherly features.

"Mister Black, Mister Potter, if you wouldn't mind helping me carry Miss Hunter to the Hospital Wing?"

Without a moments hesitation, Sirius carefully scooped Rosie up into his arms and started hurrying up to the Hospital Wing, passing many pictures who voiced there concern at the appearance of the limp girl, Madam Pomfrey and James's rushing to keep up with him. James believed he had never seen Sirius move that quickly in his life, and felt a stab of pain as the realisation fully sank in; Rosie was dying in Sirius's arms, the arms of the man who loved her. He also knew that he'd never seen the portraits act that way. Many had called out there concerns, while most were running alongside the group, their choruses echoing in the eerily quiet hallway.

Once they reached the Hospital Wing, Professor Dumbledore was already waiting there, he had on a dressing gown and he looked exhausted, as if he'd been pulled from bed. He was twirling his wand around in his hands nervously. James had never seen Professor Dumbledore look so nervous and that sent a jolt of panic rushing through him. If Dumbledore was nervous, that was definitely not a good sign, and James prayed that Sirius hadn't noticed the headmaster's actions.

"Sirius, if you would please put Rosie on the bed. Quickly." Dumbledore's voice was calm, contrasting greatly with his nervous appearance. James knew that the calmness was his way of trying to keep everyone around him calm and stable, but it had the opposite effect on Sirius. James watched Sirius clench his teeth as he did as he'd been instructed and placed the fragile looking, injured girl on the bed. She wasn't bleeding as heavily anymore, thank Merlin, but a nagging feeling at James said this was because she had hardly anything left to bleed.

The old man looked at her, his face lined with worry as he started whispering a few spells, his wand shooting gentle, multicoloured sparks all over Rosie, the faint lights from the sparks illuminating her pale face. While Dumbledore did this, Madam Pomfrey cleaned and dressed the wounds, her brow furrowed the entire time.  
"The knife that did this…" Her voice was full of unshed tears, James noticed, which made his heart ache. The older witch seemed to be taking Rosie's attack to heart.

"Or whatever it was, must've had a charm on it…the wounds cant be healed magically…" She continued as her eyes raked over the unmoving girl, tears shining in her warm, caring brown eyes.

"So…I guess Miss Hunter has to heal the muggle way. Thank Merlin she's a strong girl, boys. I'll have to try a few more things, but I'm not sure that they'll work."

James and Sirius shared a frightened look, sure, Rosie was one of the strongest, fiercest girls they'd ever met, but what had happened to her…it was exceedingly terrible and they didn't know if she'd get through it.

Suddenly, it seemed like their presence was remembered as Professor McGonagall swept into the room, giving the boys a glare as she stopped reporting how informing Rosie's father had gone. Apparently not well, so Professor McGonagall was currently in a terrible mood and gave both boys another hard look before saying, "Black. Potter. Out."

James caught the pained look flash over Sirius's face as his eyes flickered from Rosie's tiny form to McGonagall's. stern looking one. Apparently she had caught the pain on his face as her expression softened into one of deeper concern.

"The sooner you leave, the sooner she'll be healed properly."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue, then closed it and opened it again; at an absolute loss for words. James, on the other hand, knew what to do. Sure, he wanted to stay by Rosie's beside until she woke, but he also knew that Madam Pomfrey could work on Rosie easier if she didn't have the pressure from Sirius and James watching her every movement like a hawk. With that thought running through his head, he grabbed a hold of Sirius's sleeve and tugged him from the Hospital Wing.

Rosie's POV.

That, Rosie thought as someone scooped her into their arms, most definitely hurt. Not as much as when she'd been carved into something she assumed looked a lot like that gross holey cheese she hated, but still quite a fair bit of pain came from the simple movement. This pain, she noticed, was dull and barely there. Like, she knew she should feel pain, but it was more the memory of what pain felt like, then actual pain that was pillaging her thoughts. Slipping away, she was slipping away. Dying. Whatever you wanted to call it, she was doing it.

People say that when you can feel yourself slipping away in situations like this, you let go, don't hold on, Heaven was a better place and yaddah yaddah yaddah. Those people, in her mind, were idiots. They'd had people who loved them and they'd let go without a second thought. Her on the other hand, couldn't forget the people she loved and how they loved her back.

People who loved her, her father, brothers. James and Sirius. Lily. And hundreds more, all cared for her and would miss her if she let go, so she didn't.

She held on.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14; **

**Authors note; there will be more Jily now that Rosie is out of the hospital wing :D **

* * *

Rosie's POV

Waking up seemed easy; the hard part was opening her eyes. She could hear and feel what was going on, but she couldn't move. She'd been awake for hours when she heard Sirius's familiar, husky voice. Except, there was something she'd never heard in his voice, tears. Unshed tears.

She heard him sit heavily on a chair, and yank it forward until he'd claimed her cold hand in his; squeezing her hand he began talking.

"Rosie…please wake up…please don't leave me…I can't live without you, don't you see that?" Rosie felt a stab of pain in her heart, she was hurting Sirius but she couldn't open her eyes or move, just not yet.

She heard him take a big, shaky breath before continuing.

"I can't believe I'm admitting this but…I-I love you Rosie Hunter. I love the way you smile, the way it's so cheeky, naughty and secretive all at the same time while being warm and loving. I love that your laugh reminds me of spring. The way no one can ever figure out what color your eyes are. I love how you argue with me every second of every day then randomly hug me. "

Her heart leapt and her breath caught, her foot twitched. She could move, but she didn't because Sirius kept talking and she wasn't afraid of spooking him into silence. This, this was exactly what she needed from him. Years of rejecting him and ignoring the exceptionally large sexual tension, she'd just needed him to talk to her, talk to her like he was now.

"I love how you can beat me at Qudditch, and whenever you do, you thank me for teaching you how to play. I love how you make weird light bulb vases for flowers and that every animal you come across adores you instantly. I love how you always try to do good by others. I love how clumsy you are. I love how you can't keep quiet if someone is being treated unjustly, even if you get hurt. I love how you say you should keep your wishes, instead of setting them free. I love how so much scares you, but you go out there and have a go anyway. I love how there's so so much more to you than a pretty face."

Rosie allowed his voice to wash over her and that's when she decided, she'd fallen. Hard. But Sirius Black had caught her. Sure, it wasn't the most graceful of falls or catches, but he wouldn't let her go.

Rosie felt him shift in his seat, heard the soft screech of the chair on the floor. A few moments later, she could feel his soft breath tickling her lips. Her breath caught and before she could open her eyes to analyze the situation properly, she felt his lips press to hers timidly.

Rosie froze under his lips. She'd kissed other boys and what a disappointment that had been. There'd been no fireworks, not butterflies. NOTHING. Except, kissing Sirius, all those things happened. She felt her heart rate increase as her arms achingly slowly wrapped around his neck and she started kissing him back.

Rosie felt Sirius stiffen slightly before he kissed her even more gently than before, his lips barely touching hers, almost as if someone had left a window open in the wing and it was the gentle breeze caressing her lips.

James POV

James's arms were laden with presents for Rosie. She hadn't yet woken up and the Marauder's and her friends were all taking turns to sit with her, wanting at least someone to be there when she finally awoke. He couldn't help the dark side of him muttering; that was _if _she woke up.

Currently Sirius was on Rosie-duty and had been all morning. James knew how hard a time Sirius was having and it killed James to see Sirius blank and emotionless, his mind faraway with worry for Rosie.

Sirius had said that he'd taken the morning Rosie-shift because morning had been Rosie's favorite part of the day. She'd always said it had something to do with getting on a horse hours before sunrise and riding out to the middle of nowhere and watching the sunrise while it gradually colored the world. On one of the many trips out to the farm, James and Sirius had been shown the sunrise that Rosie had grown up with and they understood why she loved it.

James struggled to open the door to the Hospital Wing due to the presents in his arm and gaped at the scene in front of him.

Rosie.

And Sirius.

Kissing.

James closed his mouth and stared at his friends in bewilderment, they were kissing. Finally. Relief joined the bewilderment as he felt movement by his shoulder and he saw a flash of red hair that belonged to none other than Lily Evans.

"About time,"

James whispered to her as they watched Sirius come up for air and bury his head into the crook of Rosie's neck, whispering something too low for James and Lily to understand.

Rosie looked at happy, as he'd ever seen her, well that was until her eyes locked onto James and Lily, widened and she pushed Sirius off her.

"James! Lily! What are you doing here?!" James noticed, to his amusement, that Rosie's voice had gone high as it usually did when she was caught doing something she shouldn't be.

A chuckle escaped James's lips as he and Lily came over to the bed, dumping the presents onto Rosie's feet and looking back and forth between his friends with a smirk.

"About time," James repeated to a guilty looking Rosie and Sirius.

"James Potter, I will kill you," Sirius growled, his hand gently stroking Rosie's rumpled hair.

Lily carefully sat beside Rosie and grinned, taking her friends hand and giving it a comforting squeeze.

"You can leave the Wing now, Rosie." A brilliant smile lit up Rosie's face at the news.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Chapter 15;**_

_**Author Note; I will hopefully be updating a lot since I'm on school holidays :D Whoop WHOOP! Anyhow, I'd love it if you guys reviewed... pretty pretty please with chocolate frogs on top? **_

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James's POV

The fact that Rosie was actually out of the Hospital Wing and actually in class made James's heart soar with relief. Sure, she was pale and looked to have lost weight and her arm was heavily bandaged but her smile was as radiant as usual. He'd genuinely missed having the enthusiastic girl around and he was extremely sick of Sirius's moping. Out of the corner of his eye, James could see Sirius sneaking looks full of longing in Rosie's general direction, she had a look of deep concentration on her face as she tried to cast the patronus charm.

James and Sirius had finally been able to cast a patronus; a fairly strong one too. James was currently watching a miniature version of Sirius's patronus; a fairly small, shaggy puppy dog jump and tried to the bite the tail of his stag patronus, playfully. When his patronus just flicked it's tail away from the little dog, is sat and looked up to him, one paw held up and small whimpering sounds coming from it.

"Padfoot, if you do not stop ogling Rosie, I swear that I will hex you to kingdom come." James threatened, finally getting fed up with his best mate and the looks he was sending a now laughing Rosie who had laughed when a patronus had frightened Lily and caused her to bump into a chair and then fall to the floor.

Sirius had adamantly pretended that he hadn't told Rosie how much he'd loved her or the fact that he'd kissed her during that moment in the hospital wing two or so days ago. That was really getting on James's nerves because he could see how much Sirius's actions were hurting a poor, confused Rosie.

"You are fucking hurting her more than those wounds, Padfoot. You! You just kissed her and pretended it never happened!" James knew how Rosie was feeling, because it was in a way similar to what Lily had done to him, except she hadn't kissed him, proclaimed she'd loved her then left him in the dust. Although, she was yet again freezing him out and had loudly told Rosie that she'd accepted a date to the Three Broomsticks during their next Hogsmeade weekend, which was the day before they left for Christmas break. As usual, Rosie, Sirius and Remus were staying with him and his uncle during Christmas, except this year Lily was also coming.

A deep growling noise from Sirius snapped him out of his internal ramblings and

Sirius clenched his teeth and his fists, the anger almost tangible around him in the surrounding air, his hands coming to rest against his thighs as he snarled at James.

"If it wasn't for _me _she wouldn't have those injuries! I can't put her in harms way Prongs! My cousin organized to have Rosie injured because she's special to me! Do you know how much it hurts to know that I'm the reason Rosie almost died?!"

Understanding dawned on James, confusion melting away like ice cream on a rarely hot day. _That _was why Sirius had been freezing out Rosie. If James was in his position, the guilt would've been eating him alive and also the realization that you were so close, so, so close to being with the girl he'd loved since forever, would just feel like you were having the Cruciartus curse cast on you.

James flinched away from Sirius slightly and was about to open his mouth to apologize to his friend and to try and give him some morsel of advice when Sirius tackled James to the floor, making James forget all about his epiphany.

"You don't understand, do you Prongs!? You don't understand the pain!" Sirius growled as he shoved James away from him hard. James just lay there and let Sirius get it out, knowing that if his friend kept in his emotions any longer that he'd a few minutes of occasional shoves, Sirius and James just laid there, watching the luminous silver creatures do various things all over the room.

WIth a final, soft kick to the thigh, Sirius got up and dusted himself off, one of his many fangirls running to see if the 'man of their dreams' was alright. Rolling his eyes, James also stood up and leant against his desk watching as Sirius and the girl talked. _She _was Emmeline Anderson, half- blood, pretty and blonde and he'd heard Rosie and Lily compare her to a muggle doll- Bernie?- more than once. Her figure? Perfect. Her complexion? Perfect. Her hair? Also exhaustingly, annoyingly perfect. Most guys would have given anything to have the girl there, her short skirt and tight blouse in their face, but most guys were not like Sirius Black or James Potter. James had always hated Emmeline. Well, his hatred had actually began during third year and he could also confidently say Sirius's started at the same time. It was during Halloween, and the cow had decided it'd be funny to sabotage Rosie and make all her clothes fall off, suckish for her was the fact that people had overheard her shit plan and had notified the Marauders who had helped Rosie avoid the crisis.

* * *

So here was the girl both boy's despised, her wand glowing slightly, showing that she had indeed managed to conjure a patronus. She was mid sentence when Sirius stopped her talking; pointing to the little puppy dog that had been playing with James's patronus a while ago. The appearance of the little dog seemed to shock Sirius, as he looked back and forth between the patronus and Emmeline. Finally, James could see the absolute horror on Sirius's face, Sirius spoke.

"Anderson...is t-that your patronus?" Casting his patronus, Sirius looked at her expectantly as both dogs touched noses and started nuzzling each other. Giving his best mate a sympathetic look, James shrugged.  
Emmeline seemed frozen for a moment before smiling a wicked smile that sent chills down James's back as she nodded enthusiastically while managing to flip her hair. "Yes. Yes it is."

Sirius cleared his throat and shoved his hands deeply into his pockets. James could see that he was fighting over what to say until he finally choked out, "Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?" James could hear the absolute pain in Sirius's voice and he could see the other man looking at the patronus's who were still nuzzling one another affectionately.

Emmeline Anderson nodded enthusiastically and had hugged Sirius so both missed the thing that happened next and James had taken that moment to turn away, bile rising to his throat.

* * *

The little puppy dog patronus, the matching pair to Sirius's patronus, disappeared as Rosie Hunter dropped her wand.

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_**Author's note; Feel free to PM me whenever about whatever :D I'll even talk about the weather with you :D And also pretty pretty please with chocolate frogs on top? **_


	16. Chapter 16

_**Chapter 16; **_

_**Author's note; Please dont hate me after this chapter... *Looks down and shuffles nervously* **_

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With a sigh, James finished off his fire whiskey in one gulp, trying not to look at the girl of his dreams with another man. Or was she the girl of his dreams anymore? Lily Evans had changed. Change was good.

Usually.

The way Lily had changed had hit James like a slap in the face. She'd started to remind him of Emmeline Anderson, who was currently sending Rosie triumphant looks while Sirius was getting her a drink.

It seemed like James and Rosie were holding a pity party. Both of them had already downed three shots of firewhiskey each and were still going strong. They'd even set themselves up at the bar after their third shot, tired of having to walk to and fro while already tipsy and feeling the slightest buzz from the alcohol they'd ingested.

Recently, things had pretty much been this way. Rosie avoided Sirius like the plague and solidly believed that he'd used her and James didn't blame her. She had every right to feel hurt and angry at Sirius and he didn't have the energy to try and change her mind. That was mostly because Lily had done about the same thing to him and he was dealing with his own hurts.

Hours later, Rosie and James could barely stand up straight without swaying on the spot and grabbing onto each other for support. Rosie was a giggly drunk and James, James was a stupid drunk and did stupid things. Usually, Remus or Peter would be be there to keep tabs on how much someone was drinking and reign them in, or if they couldn't, make sure they didn't do anything stupid. But when both boys had heard how Rosie and James planned to spend their Saturday, both boys bowed out and went off to do different things. If they'd been there, they probably could have stopped what happened next.

Rosie and James had been walking back to Hogwarts, singing a drinking song rather loudly and James couldn't help but thinking how gorgeous she looked with the delicate snowflakes glistening in her hair. Stumbling into him, Rosie made both of them crash into a snowbank, James falling on top of her. He looked down at her, his breathing coming in soft clouds. She looked so gentle and beautiful. So beautiful she was making his heart beat faster and his mind race. Without a moments hesitation, James pressed his lips to hers just as Sirius Black and his date and Lily Evans and hers rounded the corner. See, the circumstance would've been easily forgotten for all the members of the parties if Rosie hadn't wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, making James up the intensity of the kiss.

James felt someone grab him by the collar and jerk him away from Rosie, someone punching him straight in the jaw. He groaned and was knocked to the floor, rubbing his jaw. He saw Sirius standing over Rosie, pulling her up and acting as if James had forced himself upon her. He even asked her that.

"Did Prongs force himself on you Rosie?" James could hear the anger behind his gentle voice. To his relief, James could see Rosie glaring at Sirius slightly before she punched his across the jaw. "What was that for!?" Sirius screamed once he'd jumped to his feet and James was laughing uncontrollably and had pulled Rosie to him, wrapping one of his arms around her slender waist. James liked this feeling, it was warm and slightly tingly, but a voice at the back of his mind shouted that he didn't love Rosie, he loved Lily Evans. Or he did. He could learn to love Rosie and Rosie could learn to love him.

Putting his mouth by her ear, he breathed softly into her ear, "Rosie, would you go out with me?" He could tell that he hadn't asked as softly as he thought he had because he caught the hurt looks from both Sirius and Lily. But why would they be hurt? They had dates, girlfriends, boyfriends. Rosie and James could have each other.

He felt his heart beat increase when Rosie nodded and buried curled into him slightly, pressing a small kiss to her cheek. Sure, she was no Lily Evans, but she was better. She was kind, funny, amazing, sporty. She laughed at his jokes and they'd been friends for a long time, but a part of him couldn't help but feel bad from hurting four people in the space of ten minutes. Sure, only two of the people had _directly _been hurt by Rosie and himself, but when their dates had seen Sirius and Lily's reactions to the two of them snogging, they'd been hurt too.

* * *

James didn't feel drunk anymore, being punched in the face and falling in the snow had inadvertently woken him and he had a feeling Rosie was the same. As he watched her look at Sirius coldly, he couldn't help feeling a moment of triumph. "Now, if you would excuse us, I'm taking my _girlfriend _back to the castle. Night all," He saw Sirius flinch as if he'd been punched in the face again and he swore he could see tears in Lily's eyes but at that moment he didn't care. He was sick of being used and after a soft conversation he could tell she was sick of it too. James knew that Rosie had been used worse than him. He at least hadn't been told that someone loved them, snogged them and then left them in the dust.

Trying to lighten the mood, James scooped her into his arms and dumped her into a snow bank, jumping in as well and throwing some snow on her. He could see the transformation of her emotions changing from low and sad to happy and enthusiastic as she jumped on top of him and dumped handful after handful of snow on him. They grappled momentarily, him rolling her over, dumping snow on her then the reverse.

Finally, they stopped when their breathing was heavy and Rosie laid down beside him. Both of them were covered from head to toe in melted snow and their faces were flushed with the cold. James hadn't felt that happy or whole in days.

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_**Please please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **__** please please please **_

_**With a million trillon gazillion chocolate frogs, bottles of butterbeer, firewhiskey and felix felicis ontop review. I'm really nervous to know what you guys think! **_


	17. Chapter 17

_**Chapter 17;**_

_**Author's note; Pwetty please review? *Puppy dog eyes* **_

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Remus's POV

The train ride to King's Cross, was, let's say, eventful? James and Rosie were asleep nearest to the window, her head pillowed on his chest as they slept on. Sirius and Emmeline were locked in a passionate snog and every time they pulled away, Sirius would send a look to Rosie and James. Remus could tell that he was hoping that the girl would wake up and be jealous, but he got the exact opposite reaction from her. She seemed exceptionally happy in her new found relationship with James and had seemed to push Sirius and his new girlfriend out of her head.

Lily on the other hand, seemed to be in a dreadful mood. She'd told Remus about her date yesterday and it had been a huge failure in her books. Instead of urging James to ask her out like she'd planned, she'd made him find comfort in the arms of her best friend. What made her hurt worse was that both seemed to not be acting. Remus sighed and buried his head back into his book, love was complicated and he honestly wondered why people bothered if they'd just have their hearts broken.

Lily's POV

"I can't believe her!" Lily vented loudly, the tears audible in her voice as she explained the Rosie/James situation to her friends. The other also happened to be Rosie's friends, except, it seemed as if all the girls except Annastasia was against the girl now. It wasn't as if Lily had claimed James, she still denied that she had any feelings for him what so ever, a rational part of Lily explained to her over and over again. The thing was, she felt betrayed. Her best friend had taken the man she had feelings for and worse yet, they looked happy.

"Why can't you Lily? James and Rosie have always been close and I am happy for them." Annastasia pronounced, looking up from the Daily Prophet to meet Lily's mortified stare. Lily had always been hot tempered and it took everything she had not to pull her wand out and hex the blonde all the way to kingdom come.

Instead, Lily swallowed heavily and cried,"Stasia! How could you say something like that! What about me!?" Pain filled Lily's voice and the rest of her friend's gave Anastasia a glare filled of menace. Catching the look Stasia sent her way, Lily narrowed her eyes.

"What about _you? _What about _Rosie?_ And _James? _Don't they deserve to be happy Lily or only you? You've changed this year and it hasn't been for the better."

Flinching away from the other girl, Lily's eyes widened and her face pulled into a look of offence. How _dare _she say that!? She hadn't changed! Not at all. But sitting there in the compartment, all of her friends quietly doing something as not to upset Lily, she realised she had been acting terrible towards James. The way she'd been fluctuating from warm to cold must've been causing him a significant amount of confusion.

Finally, Lily whispered to Stasia.  
"D-do you really think that? Think that I've been making James miserable? That him and Rosie are good together?"

There was a brief pause before Annastasia's voice broke through the thick silence.

"Well, it's the truth. You have no interest in him, remember? It looks as if you've been playing with him Lily, like he's nothing but a game in your eyes. And I sat with them during breakfast and it looked like they were both quite happy."

Tears filled her eyes. Lily couldn't believe it. Rosie had known that Lily had liked James, or well, held strong feelings for him and she'd still taken him from her. But she also knew that Annastasia wasn't lying when she said James and Rosie were good together and that's what hurt her the most. Also, she knew this Christmas would be a quite awkward affair.

James's POV

When he woke up, one of his arms were wrapped soundly around Rosie while her head was pillowed on his chest, resting directly on top of his heart. Gently, James pushed her slightly rumpled hair from her eyes and smiled down at her sleeping form. Looking up, he noticed Remus's slightly furrowed brow and he himself mirrored his friend's movement.

"Remus? What's wrong?" James's voice was husky with sleep and he talked softly so that he didn't wake the sleeping girl in his arms. Looking down at her again, he noticed that he'd never realised that he constantly thought of Rosie as more than a sister but laid off her for Sirius, but Sirius also had Anderson. James and Rosie had spent most of the night and part of the morning sprawled on the couch in the Head's Dormitories sculling down hangover potions and chocolate frogs.

Remus's voice snapped him back into reality as James shook his head and looked back at his friend. "What about Lily? And Sirius? They're both hurting James." Sighing, James touched Rosie's injured arm, his fingers trailing over the thick material of the bandage.

"Yeah? Well we were too. Remus, I'm not breaking up with Rosie. I haven't been this happy in ages." Rolling his eyes, Remus looked back down at his book as Sirius walked back into the compartment and gave James an overly polite greeting.

"Prongs," He nodded and sat as far away from James as possible, who was adjusting Rosie slightly so she wouldn't fall off the bench. That seemed to wake her, as her eyes slowly fluttered open and she looked up at James.

"Hi..." Rosie said softly, her faint smile made James's breath catch the tiniest bit. He couldn't help leaning down and pressing a kiss to her little nose. He'd never realised before, but there was a light splattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks that was just simply adorable.

Laughing, Rosie pushed him off of her. James saw where her eyes had settled on to Sirius, who looked miserable at how happy both of them looked.

He could see that her eyes had grown sad as Rosie lightly bit her lip and he gave her waist a small squeeze. Leaning down so that his mouth was centimetres from her ear, he whispered. "I know Rosie, I don't like hurting him either..."

With another small sigh, Rosie nodded and closed her eyes again. James watched her fall asleep, the guilt about the current situation almost eating him alive the whole way to King's Cross Station.


	18. Chapter 18

_**Chapter 18;**_

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James's POV

"We have to break up," Rosie whispered to James as they scrounged around the woods outside of his uncle's home. They'd arrive there two nights ago to comfortably made beds and warm soup that didn't suit the awkward situation that followed during the slightly long trip on the Knight Bus.

James froze where he was standing and nodded glumly. He knew this was going to happen after he'd seen how sad Rosie had seemed with the Sirius/ Lily situation. And in truth, when he'd seen Lily burst into tears when she'd seen him helping Rosie out of the train so tenderly, his heart had shattered to pieces and he'd felt like he'd had a bucket full of freezing water thrown over him.

"I agree Rosie…it was a drunken kiss and a drunken arrangement. We should never have done it," He looked down and was tackled to the ground by the small girl, causing the firewood in his arms to be flung from his grasp.

Laughing, Rosie dumped a handful of snow directly in his face before standing up and dancing away from him, saying in a singsong voice, "Of course it was. You know how I feel about Sirius. I guess, I was just hurting because of Anderson and I needed time to heal." James sat up and couldn't help smiling at the little girl. He had to agree with her on the healing. They'd talked about how much they'd been hurting because of their love interests actions and had finally had time to vent. Yell if they wanted. Sometimes (more often then not) cry. That healing had been important, vital.

As they were carrying back the firewood a few hours later, an idea struck James and he shifted urgently from one foot to the other. Rosie noticed this and gestured for him to give her the firewood, which he did without a hesitation as he bolted up to the house, leaving the tiny girl to struggle with the heavy load that was about twice her weight.

James Potter found Lily Evans curled up on the couch, gently brushing out his littler sister's hair and pulling it into a beautifully complicated plait. He came up to her and sat down besides her, gently tapping her on the shoulder a couple times.  
"Lily. Lily. Lily! Come with me for a moment." When she started to protest, he threw her over one shoulder and carried her to his father's old study, closing the door behind them softly. He gently put her down on the large, oak desk and watched her carefully. James finally understood why Emmeline Anderson had never been beautiful to him, never truly beautiful. It was all because of the girl sitting in front of him, gently gnawing on her lip in the way that made him go crazy. Lily's hair fell down her back, beautiful, red and thick, curling slightly at the ends. Her big, intelligent green eyes watched him and a tiny splattering of freckles covered her nose and cheeks.

"What do you want James?" Lily's voice was cold yet held the tiniest hint of curiosity, but it was the cold that truly got to him. The way she spoke made him feel as if he'd been deserted in the middle of the forest during a winter blizzard. Cold. Freezing.

Gulping heavily, he tried to put all the singular thoughts running around and around in his head, trying desperately to form into coherent thoughts. Finally, he settled on something he'd wanted to do forever. Taking two, confidant steps towards her, he took her small face in his hands and cupped her cheeks. Pressing his forehead to hers and locking his eyes onto her own, he whispered, "Don't freak out. Okay?" Just as Lily Evans opened her mouth to ask why she would possibly freak out, James Potter pressed his lips to hers and she let the remark die on her lips.

Sirius's POV

James's uncle, William, had also sent Sirius out for firewood when his nephew and his _girlfriend _hadn't returned quickly enough. Just thinking of Rosie and James's made loathing spring up for his best mate and for the girl who had stolen his heart so easily. Was it so hard for her to love him back? But love wasn't the question, because he knew Rosie felt as he did. It'd been his fault. He'd pushed her away and pretended that he'd never confessed his love to her on a grey Saturday morning.

When he heard someone crash into the snow not far from him, his or her yell of "BLOODY FIREWOOD JAMES POTTER!" caused him to hurry and pull her from the snow. Rosie. The girl he'd been thinking of.

As always, she looked beautiful. Even covered from head to toe in layer after layer and her nose red and running slightly. Rosie smiled her thanks to him and started hurrying to pick up the firewood scattered around them.

"Where's Prongs?" He couldn't help asking as he hurried to help her, picking up the majority of the wood easily. She looked at him curiously, he could see her big grey eyes analysing him. Currently, it seemed as if she'd taken a particular liking to the colour grey.

"He went to snog Lily." Shrugging, she held four to five pieces of the small wood under her left arm and cocked her head to the side. "James and I are over. I never loved him," Rosie took a few hesitant steps towards him and he could see her struggling to decide to step closer.

Letting the wood drop from his hands, he stepped closer to her and gently cupped her face in his hands, wiping away a stray tear. "Why are you crying?" Sirius whispered to her, concern leaking into his voice as water leaked from a crack in a cup.

Rosie blinked a few times rapidly, a manoeuvre he knew that she used every time she was trying not to let the tears escape her.

"I can never have you, can I? I'm just a game to you…" Emotion made her voice break and she looked down, taking a quick step so she was away from him. Sirius felt his heart plummet to his feet. She thought he'd been using her. Sirius had tried to be different, tried to show her that not everyone, especially him, would use her like a game. Yet, in her eyes, he had used her.

Quickly, he stepped close to her again, putting a finger under her chin and tilting her head up to look at him. The way Rosie had been holding her head had made hair pool into her face, but as Sirius encouraged her to look at him, the hair fell away to show the crying girl.

"Oh Rosie. It's not…I love you Rosie Hunter. I love how you love the morning and I love how you put on a brave face yet you're more fragile than most. And I love how every night, you wish upon a star. " Without another word, Sirius ghosted his lips over hers, making his heart beat faster in his chest.

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_**Authors note; All is right in the world of fandom. **_


	19. Chapter 19

_**Chapter 19; **_

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Rosie's POV

People say when you're snogging someone special to you that you can feel fireworks. Planets aligning. Like all is right in the world. That is exactly what Rosie felt when Sirius's chilled lips made contact with hers, causing violent shivers to take over her body as she returned the kiss. Her breath had caught in her throat and her arms were frozen by her sides. Her knees started to shake, and she knew soon they'd buckle and she'd be chin deep in a snow bank. It seemed that Sirius could tell this and walked her until her back was pressed against the rough surface of a tree. The kiss was gentle, timid and had so much love buried into the core that it made Rosie's head spin and her knees were still trying to buckle, apparently trying exceptionally hard to have her crash to the snow and ruin the moment. Like Emmeline Anderson had ruined so many moments between her and Sirius during the years.

The name, simple and nothing special in reality, was like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over her. Sirius Black had a girlfriend, and here he was trying to convince her of his so called love for her.

Turning her head to the side sharply, their lips disconnected and she could see Sirius giving her a confused look from the corner of her eyes.

In a soft tone, that was filled with longing, sadness, rejection and all the other emotions she'd been feeling, Rosie whispered. "You have a girlfriend Sirius..."

Suppressing a secretive smile, Sirius leaned close to her and whispered in her ear. "My, my Rosie, one kiss and you're already calling yourself my girlfriend?" She jerked away quickly and glared at him, suppressing the urge to punch him across the jaw.

"You know full well who I mean! _Emmeline! _Your soul mate." Rosie sneered the girl's name, trying desperately not to start crying, she took a few deep breaths and pulled her wand from behind her ear. When she'd started to feel down, she'd gotten into the habit of casting her patronus. There was just something so joyful and peaceful about the creature.

Turning her back on him, she visualised a summer spent camped out at her farm with Sirius, scoffing down chocolate bars and she felt warm inside. "Expecto Patronum," Rosie muttered and instantly the familiar shaggy puppy dog shot out of her wand and ran around, wagging it's tail and barking at nothing in particular.

She was walking away till she heard running footsteps and Sirius grabbed her arm, turned her around and kissed her passionately, making her wand fall from her hand and her patronus disappeared in a puff of vapour.

Pulling away, Sirius pressed his forehead to hers and met her eyes. Just the simple movement already had her heart going at turbo speed and her breath slightly laboured.

"I broke up with her. I don't love her. I love you. Everything about you. And you, Rosie Hunter, are my soul mate." Carefully, he pulled his wand out, muttered the charm she had and Rosie watched with wide eyes as a larger version of her patronus appeared.

"They match," Rosie whispered, their eyes meeting again and colour rushed to her cheeks as he nodded and kissed her again. "I pretended the Wing hadn't happened because...because I found out it was _my _fault this," His hand trailed down from her shoulder and gently claimed her forearm. "was all my fault." Rosie nodded and could tell he was going to say more, but she silenced him with a kiss filled with love, acceptance and passion.

* * *

Lily's POV

Lily allowed herself to melt into the kiss. The kiss that she'd been hoping to get all year. She tangled her hands into his shirt and pulled him closer to her, trying to deepen the kiss. She could feel James smile against her lips as he pulled away and rested his hands on her hips. Their foreheads rested against each other and Lily made a soft sound, trying to kiss him again. Amusement glittered in James's eyes as he whispered. "Be mine?"

Warmth spread through every corner of her body and she nodded enthusiastically, cupping his face and gently ghosting her lips over his. Everything was perfect. Well, until Rosie came back into his mind. She jerked away quickly, her eyes widening and her heart sinking. James wouldn't cheat on her, she knew that for sure, but it didn't explain why he was locked in a fairly passionate kiss with her when he was supposed to be dating Rosie. Sure, Lily had been fairly angry at Rosie lately but she would not be the _other _girl. No way in hell.

"Are you and Rosie..." Lily trailed off and bit her lip, her eyes gazing around the office and looking at all the old photographs of James and his parents. That was something Lily didn't understand. He didn't understand where they were and also why James looked fairly young in all the images, not one was of him and his parents at his current age.

James gently took her chin and turned her head to look at him, where he tenderly kissed her cheek, which made electricity shoot all over her. "Over. I didn't love her. I never did. You're the only girl I want Lily."

Lily looked at him for a moment, gently gnawing on her lower lip as she thought. He'd really grown up. James Potter had changed, very much for the better. He'd matured. Lily had a feeling he'd always been kind, just, brave, loyal and all of the above but she could never see until this moment. Lily loved watching him with Rosie or his sister, where the soft side of him really came out completely. Around her, Lily knew that she only saw part of that side because James seemed to believe that soft and mushy weren't her thing.

Just as she'd grabbed his collar and pulled him into a passionate kiss, his uncle opened the door to the study.


	20. Chapter 20

_**Chapter 20! WHOOP wHOOP!**_

* * *

_**ROSIE'S POV**_

Rosie woke up with a start, not knowing where she was until she'd fumbled with her wand and illuminated the room. Taking a deep breath, she sat up, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart as the memories of her nightmare still haunted her mind. She was in the small guest room she'd been staying in for Christmas break at James's uncle William's house. The memory of her nightmare was fresh in her mind and there was no way she could get back to sleep. Lately, that'd been happening a lot and she'd been living off at least one hour sleep at night. Rosie tucked her wand behind her ear and curled up on the small window seat, watching the delicate snowflakes twirl around in the dark night as she rested her book on her lap. A large, woollen blanket was wrapped around her, even during the dead of winter she wore the same pyjamas; a red tank top and a red and white checker patterned short shorts. Rosie let herself focus on her book, trying and failing, to drive the horrific nightmare from her mind. Eventually, she succeed and became immersed in her book. She almost missed the soft knock on her door. Almost. Rosie had looked up in time to see Sirius Black slip into her room, running a hand through his hair. He was wearing just grey pyjama bottoms, which made it hard for Rosie to snap her eyes away from his well sculpted chest. While she was fighting for a morsel of self control, Sirius came and sat beside her on the window seat, pulling her into his lap easily. "Again?" He whispered in her ear, his voice husky and his soft breath tickling her ear. Rosie nodded and buried her head into the crook of his neck. Honestly, she was happy he was here but he'd also made her remember her nightmare. "Yeah..." Whispered Rosie softly. What scared her the most was the fact that she couldn't get out of the dream on her own anymore. Usually, she could pinch herself and BAM she'd wake up. But now, she was stuck. She couldn't wake up without some intervention from the real world. "I can't wake myself up anymore Sirius."

Jerking back, Sirius looked down at her and his eyes were wide and filled with terror. "Rosie...promise me you'll either sleep with me or in the same room as Lily." His fingers trailed over her forearm, gently, tenderly, lovingly. Recently, she'd stopped heavily bandaging it, seeing no need to anymore as all it was now were scars. Horrific scars that she'd have forever. Sirius must've caught the look that had flashed in her eyes, as he'd brought her forearm up to his lips and trailed soft kissed along the scars.

His movements sent shivers down her spine and she tenderly looked up at him as he whispered against her scarred flesh. "You're beautiful the way you are. Scars or no scars. To me, you're the most beautiful, gorgeous, amazing girl in the world and I'll never let you forget it." Heat coursed through her and she blushed deeply. They'd officially been together a week and she still wasn't used to the shower of compliments and how much he tried to protect her unconditionally.

Rosie softly kissed his cheek and he looked up at her, the love eminent in his eyes. Then he frowned, a furrow in his brow as he lightly touched her forehead.  
"Rosie...you're burning up! Do you feel okay?" Rosie cocked her head to the side and frowned also. She felt perfectly fine. A little cold, sure, but remarkably fine.  
"Yeah...I'm just cold."  
In a second, Sirius had scooped her up into his arms and was gently lying her into the bed and pulling the blankets up to her chin. Rosie suddenly felt colder and couldn't help the violent shiver that ran through her.

Frowning, Sirius hurried over to the closet and grabbed the extra blankets stacked there and tenderly laid them over her, the all time she kept shivering violently.

"How're you feeling?" Sirius asked gently, sitting down beside her and brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"C-c-cold..." Rosie managed to stutter out, her teeth chattering from the cold to her annoyance. Sirius frowned again and climbed into the bed beside her, pulling her flush against his chest. Rosie groaned the tiniest bit and let his body warmth rush over her. "Better?" He whispered into her ear, his voice filled to the brim with concern.

Nodding she looked up at him and shivered again, gnawing on her lip. "Sirius...when we did the Amortenia for Slughorn...what'd you smell?" The curiosity had been eating at her for a while and she was slightly to finally get the question out. She'd smelt Sirius's cologne, God she loved his cologne, rain because he'd nearly kissed her in the rain and chocolate because of the time they spent their fifth year camped out on her father's farm with huge slabs of Honey Duke's chocolate.

Her ear was pressed against his chest and she could hear his heart beat clearly, strong and steady, dependable, just like Sirius. The beat was slowly lulling her to sleep when he spoke, "Vanilla and roses, hay and that weird smell the quaffle has." Confusion filled every corner of her mind as she tried desperately to figure out if she was connected to any of those things. Sirius must have sensed her tense up, because his hands lightly began stroking her back while he continued; "Vanilla and roses because of your shampoo or perfume or just you. Hay because you're my little farm girl and the quaffle smell because you're always handling the quaffle." Her heart soared and he gently pressed a kiss to her forehead, one of his hands gently touching her forehead. His hand was freezing cold and she told him so, which just made him hug her more. "Rosie, you've got a temperature, a bad one. We need to get you sweating." Rosie already knew she was sweating, she could feel her tank top sticking to her body in a few places as she closed her eyes and focused on the steady beat of Sirius's heart.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Chapter 21; **_

* * *

James's POV

Waking up in the morning, he noticed that Sirius wasn't on the mattress that he'd been calling his bed during the break. Sitting up, James stretched, yawned and looked at the old alarm clock on his bedside table. Ten in the morning. He got up and went in search of Sirius, deciding to look in Rosie's room first because she was known to have nightmares and Sirius was known to sneak into the room to comfort the little girl.

Opening the door, he didn't expect to find the room unusually warm. He could see Sirius on the bed, Rosie curled into him. Sirius's hair was stuck to his forehead from sweat and James could see Rosie moving slightly, as if she was shivering. Confusion filled James's mind at why both of them looked uncomfortable for different reasons. Sirius looked unusually hot while Rosie looked cold.  
Thinking he was asleep, James turned to leave when he heard a male voice whisper his name. Sirius had looked up and saw James, then made a motion that translated to keep quiet as he de-tangled himself from Rosie and slipped out of the bed. He grabbed James's arm and pulled him out of the room, closing the door quietly behind them.  
James only gave him a questioning look, noticing that his best mate was covered in sweat. Sighing, Sirius fanned himself with his hand, trying to cool down slightly as he explained;  
"Rosie's got a fever. I've been trying to help her break it and it really wasn't working out for me. She's getting worse..."

James felt concern shoot through him at the possibility that Rosie was horribly sick during Christmas but he had no idea what to do. He was hopeless when it came to people he loved and cared about being sick. Gnawing on his lip, James finally came up with a solution. "I'll get Anna Lee to go check on her. You should probably shower and then head down to breakfast." He could see how hesitant Sirius looked so James sighed and patted his best mate on the back. "Sirius...you can only do so much. Just stay with her until Anna Lee comes up then go. And open a window. We wouldn't want you to get too overheated."

Nodding, Sirius ran his hands through his hair, the exhaustion clear in his eyes. "I just...I hate being so...so helpless! I can tell she's not enjoying this situation and I just want to make her better." James hugged Sirius tightly in a hug that they'd dubbed the "man hug" during their third year before he walked into Rosie's room and looked at the girl again. She was thrashing around and calling out softly and James hurriedly kneeled on the bed beside her sleeping form and shook her violently, easily waking her from her nightmare as Sirius pulled open the curtains and opened the window to let in the soft, refreshing wind.

Sirius had told James more than once how terrifying it is to see someone you loved wrapped up so completely in a nightmare and he finally understood. Seeing Rosie wake up was like opening a present you've begged for forever on Christmas morning.

"J-James...?" Her voice was weak and shook slightly in her confusion. Pity filled him to the core, so he hugged the girl tightly, not noticing that she was covered in sweat. More sweat than Sirius was covered in. Rosie's face was pale and she looked sickly and thin.

James nodded and pushed her back against the bed before getting up, sharing a look with Sirius that worked as a mutual agreement. The agreement basically stated that Sirius was in charge of looking after Rosie with whatever he could without leaving her for too long, while James was in charge of finding her help while leaving her.

Hurrying out of the room, James ran to his uncle's bedroom and knocked frantically on the door, calling to Anna Lee from the other side. He was frantic. He wouldn't be if he hadn't seen how sickly Rosie looked, but since he had, he couldn't get the image from his mind. Finally, Anna Lee opened the door, her hair was ruffled and she was only wearing one of his uncle's button up shirts. Averting his eyes respectfully, James told her about Rosie's current situation.

Sirius's POV

Sirius looked down as Rosie and gently put the moist cloth on her burning forehead, sending a look over his shoulder at Anna Lee, who was flicking through a book about medical ailments, a furrow in her brow. He was panicking and had been doing so for the last hour or so. He hated seeing Rosie in pain and she had calmed down slightly but her forehead was still burning up and she still had a pile of blankets stacked on top of her.

"Anna Lee...isn't there a spell or a potion or something else?" Sirius asked desperately as he sat heavily on the window seat and ran his hands through his hair, feeling frustratingly helpless. Anna Lee looked up from the book and sighed softly. She was gently gnawing on her bottom lip as she flicked through the pages and held the book back out to him.

"They recommend what we've been doing as well as a potion I'll get William or Remus to pick up on their way home. Okay?" He knew that Anna Lee was as distressed as he was, but he couldn't control the anger that bubbled to the surface.

"That isn't soon enough! There must be something we can do, something that'll work sooner!" Sirius's voice broke with emotion as his eyes trailed over the girl he loved. Why did it seem that every time something good happened in her life, Rosie's world was somehow turned up side down. Anna Lee re-took the book from his hands and flicked through the pages, finally settling on a spell and casting it over Rosie. "It'll take a little bit to actually work, but the fever should drop soon." Sirius nodded his thanks to Anna Lee before going to lie on the bed beside Rosie, cuddling her into his chest as he waited for the fever to drop.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Chapter 22; **_

* * *

When he walked into the sitting room, holding a scrap of parchment covered in ink, he saw Rosie and Sirius sitting on either side of the room, flinging marshmallows at each other while they both laughed loudly. He couldn't suppress the smile on his face as he saw Rosie out and about again, after recovering from her killer two day long fever. Dodging a marshmallow, James took a seat beside Rosie, fidgeting nervously. "What are you two _doing?" _James asked and tried to distract himself from the thoughts whirling around in his mind. Seeming to pick up on his need for a distraction and quickly, Sirius threw a marshmallow at James, who caught it in his mouth strategically.

"What does it look like we're doing, Prongs? Holding a tea party?" Sirius asked sarcastically and James rolled his eyes and turned to look at Rosie, who was leaning over the arm of her chair to reach fire and was carefully roasting a marshmallow in the fire. "I wouldn't mind a cup of tea though," She mumbled thoughtfully, her attention focused on the marshmallow while she bit her tongue in concentration.  
"Rosie, I need your help." His voice shook slightly, finally his emotions getting the better of him. He'd never admit it aloud but he was extremely nervous. James had no idea of how to make his and Lily's first date memorable, something that she would love and enjoy. Something that she could remember for years.

Honestly, he was still surprised that she'd snogged him back when he'd kissed her that snowy day in his father's old study. There seemed to be some unspoken agreement between them that said that they were officially dating but James didn't want a snog in a study to be forever known as their first date. Usually, James wouldn't have cared. Especially if it was for another girl, but this was Lily Evans and she made all the difference in the world.

Rosie brought her marshmallow from the fire and frowned, the gooey sweet was on fire and Rosie casually blew it out before cocking an eyebrow at James.  
"I'm listening."

Another marshmallow was thrown at James, compliments of Sirius, as he'd moved to explain to Rosie his conundrum and why he need her help. "Just to let you know Prongs, you're crashing me and my girlfriend's first date."

Guilt shot through James until he had a second thought. Their first date was sitting at opposite sides of a room and throwing marshmallows at each other? Was that even a first date? But he could see the happiness shining in their eyes and their smiles and he knew that Sirius had gotten the desired effect from the date. Grinning widely, Rosie rolled her eyes and threw another marshmallow at Sirius, who caught it and threw it back at her. As she caught it, she shook her head and said in an amused voice, "Come here, you git. And James, we'll help."

* * *

James noticed that he hadn't even told the pair what he'd needed help with, yet they were already eager to give him assistance. Remus was keeping Lily busy so that James could set up for the date and for a moment James wished that Peter had been allowed to come to spend Christmas with the rest of them. He'd have been a valuable asset in helping set up for the "big date" as he'd dubbed it in his mind. Corny, right?

* * *

Smirking, Sirius came and sat beside Rosie on the couch, pulling her onto his lap as she nibbled on the burnt marshmallow tentatively, as if she was trying to see if it was edible. Surprisingly, she hummed in enjoyment and snarfed the whole thing down, making James and Sirius meet eyes and gag. For a moment, James watched the two of them from the corner of his eye, slightly jealous at how comfortable the two of them were around each other.

Shaking his head to clear the jealous thoughts from his brain, he commented on Rosie's behaviour. "Uh, Rosie, why'd you eat that? It was burnt and gross." James said, wrinkling his nose as she chewed on the burnt sweet as if it hadn't been on fire moments before.

"It's not that bad, actually." She said through a full mouth, flashing the half chewed sweet to both boys, who flinched away, echoing a chorus of; "GROSS!"

* * *

Finally, after everyone had somewhat calmed down, James spoke, gently worrying his lower lip between his teeth as all his emotions caught up with him.

"I need help...with planning a first date for Lily." He said after a long moment full of horrible scenarios about Lily hating the date and refusing to ever speak with him again.

As if reading his mind, Rosie quickly jumped in. "Of course, we'll help you James! What ideas do you have?" She asked kindly and James sighed softly, biting his lip harder.

"Well, I don't really have any ideas..."

Rosie face palmed into her hand and Sirius made a shooing motion at James as he whispered soft things to her. "Go get parchment and ink...we have a lot of work to do." Rosie mumbled and James scampered off, praying desperately that Lily would enjoy the date that they all brought together.

* * *

They brainstormed ideas on the parchment, Rosie's brilliant idea, and came up with a magnificent concept for the date, James truly had to admit. Due to Rosie's brilliant knowledge of her best friend, they were able to make the date special to Lily in multiple things and Rosie had given James a few hints- a "FEW" translating to about a million- about what her best friend loved to see on dates. Most of the things were overly corny and romantic and when Sirius had commented on that Rosie had simply shrugged and offered, "We're girls." As her explanation.

* * *

So, while James had begged Anna Lee to cook for his date, Rosie and Sirius hit the greenhouse and started carefully aranging everything for the date. Rosie, a forever whiz with healing, plants and nature in general, had used multiple spells to make all the beautiful flowers in the greenhouse burst into full bloom while Sirius, carefully hung about a hundred lanterns all over the greenhouse. James felt warmth shoot threw him as he carefully pulled an old, white metal table out of the corner of the greenhouse and into the centre of the little area. Casting a few careful spells, he had the table and its twin chairs looking as good as new.

* * *

Within the course of three, long, hard hours with everyone pitching into the maximum they had completely transformed the greenhouse for the date and Anna Lee had cooked a simply splendid feast for the evening. James was sitting in his room, fidgeting nervously as he watched Sirius gently prod Rosie, who had collapsed onto James's bed the second all three of them had dragged themselves out of the greenhouse and up to the room. When she moved, they all took a sigh of relief until James saw a flash of red hair out of the window, walking through the snow.  
Lily Evans was back and soon it'd be time for their date.

* * *

_**Okay! Be excited! The next chapter is James/ Lily's first date! NYYAAAHHH! A WHOLE CHAPTER ON THAT!**_

_**If I'm feeling kind, It'll be two :)**_


	23. Chapter 23

_**Chapter 23; James and Lily's date. I'm sorry if it isn't the BEST date ever. I had really bad writers block...**_

* * *

Lily yelped as she felt Rosie tug on her hair. She didn't know what had gotten over her best friend, but as soon as Lily and Remus had returned from their day out in London, Rosie had seized her friend and hadn't let Lily leavce the room for the past hour. Hair had been curled and styled, countless outfits tried on and faced with disapproving glares from Rosie. Lily couldn't help being mad at Rosie but was too curious to force her friend to stop what she was doing. More than once Lily had asked what all this was about, but all Rosie did was glance at the pocket watch Sirius had lent her, mutter about the time then continue struggling to do her hair.

Once Lily's hair was done, they, well more like Rosie, had decided on a simple outfit for her. She wore a black, knee-length skirt made of the same fabric ballerina tutu's were, tights of the same colour and a dark red sweater. The sweater was soft and made in a light way, yet was warm at the same time, which Rosie insisted was important. Black ballerina flats completed the image as well as her red hair, that pooled down her shoulders in delicate curls that Rosie had spent an hour arranging. That was the thing about Rosie, she was awesome with clothes yet she seemed to be repulsed with the idea of spending hours in front of a mirror, primping. Henceforth, it was extra odd that Rosie had been doing that exactly, which aroused suspicion in Lily's mind.

* * *

Finally, once Rosie had checked her pocket watch one more time, she smiled and leaned against the desk, her arms folded over her chest. "Lily, you look gorgeous," Lily smiled shyly and shook her head. She looked out, Rosie was notorious for over exaggerating. But she was also an extremely honest girl and wouldn't lie to her. "Rosie, why am I all dressed up?" Rosie looked up from where she'd been absently plucking a flower. "A date, Lily dearest. You have a date."

* * *

When Rosie had lead her into the greenhouse at the far side of James's home, Lily couldn't help but gasp and stare around in absolute wonder. Flowers were everywhere and the only light came from the hundreds of lanterns that had been hung around the place, giving it a gorgeous and enchanting spin. As soon as James walked up to her, wearing trousers and a plain black shirt, she felt warmth rush through every corner of her body and literally felt like she was on fire when he gently took her hand and led her over to the table, which was laden with food that looked and smelled simply amazing.

"M'lady," James said politely as he carefully, pulled out her chair for her. Lily's breath caught in her throat. Chivalry. She most definitely adored men with chivalry. With a grateful smile and a timid brush of her hand on his cheek, Lily sat on the chair and carefully inspected the glass full of flowers at the centre of the table. Christmas lilies and red roses.

Once James was seated across from her, they dug into the warm bowls of soup Anna Lee has specifically made for the event and carried on the wind, Lily was sure she could hear the familiar sound of Rosie's violin, but pushed it from her mind, everything she had focused solely on James. He'd really gone about and beyond on the date and something about the mischievous glint in his eyes told Lily that they were a far way off from the date being _officially_ over.

* * *

Every time James's eyes caught Lily's when she had the spoon poised to be pushed into her mouth, she started to shake so violently from nerves that she'd dropped and reclaimed the spoon multiple times to her embarrassment. Even worse was the fact that whenever he tried to lure her into a conversation, she gave him a closed response, instantly killing any morsel of conversation he'd managed to scrape together. Lily was silently cursing herself when James pushed himself away from the table, going behind her and carefully turning her chair to the side, her still in it, and confusion skulked upon her. Slowly, he kneeled before her and carefully took both her hands in his, gently trailing kisses along her pale knuckles, causing her breath to catch in her throat and her heart beat to increase erratically.

"Lils...calm down. Everything is okay. We've been alone before, what's so different about now?" He murmured, his lips still pressed to her. Lily struggled to gain some composure as she felt his gentle breathing over the skin of her hands.

She didn't know how to explain to him it was the fact that they'd actually labelled this night as a date that had done it for her, had caused her to start to panic. There was no way that Lily was going to admit that because they'd titled this date, that she was scared and extremely anxious for this to go perfectly.

Sighing gently, James tugged Lily to her feet and carefully lead her to a clear patch of flooring and pulled her in close to him, his hands instantly going to her waist, which earned a rather loud gasp from Lily. "Lily...we're just dancing..." James murmured into his ear, the way his breath tickled her ear caused goosebumps to erupt over her body.

Taking a few deep breaths, Lily nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck, her heart leaping at how close they were. Slowly, James moved her around the small greenhouse, Rosie's mysterious music playing louder and slower, perfect for their dancing.

* * *

After a while, James leaned his head in close to hers, theirs noses briefly touching and making her heart leap before he gently pressed his lips to hers. In the soft, flickering candle light from the lanterns, with the beautiful flowers all around them, Lily Evans finally admitted it; She was head over heels in love with James Potter.


	24. Chapter 24

_**Chapter 24; CHRISTMAS TIME!**_

* * *

Rosie's POV

"I...Merry Christmas Rosie...I hope you like it..." Sirius murmured in her ear, his usually calm, yet seductive voice was anxious and shook the tiniest bit when he spoke to her. Rosie felt a stab of worry shoot through her, worry that Sirius thought she was so shallow as to care what she got for Christmas. She wouldn't have minded getting nothing if they got to spend the day together. Looking down at the small gift wrapped box in her hand briefly, Rosie looked back up and met his eyes. "Sirius...you could have given me an ant wearing a cowboy hat and I still would love it." He laughed weakly, but there was the slightest hint on his face that the laugh and smile that had accompanied it, were forced. Carefully, she set the little box on the coffee table, before cupping Sirius's face in her cold hands and ghosted her lips over his. Rosie was desperately trying to prove to him through the kiss, her love for him and him alone. Instantly, Sirius responded to her, his arms

sliding around her waist and he pulled her as close as possible, ignoring an extremely loud chorus of "EWWWS" from James, Lily, Remus and Alison. None of that mattered to Rosie though, she ignored the people watching them with ease, slowly loosing herself into the feel on her boyfriend's lips against hers, his hands against her body. Every touch from him made her feel like she had fires lit under her skin, yet at the same time that she was being dunked head first into a rather large bucket of freezing cold water.

* * *

When they'd finally pulled away long enough to catch their breath, Sirius took the gift box and pressed it into her hand again, smiling. This time, Rosie could tell the smile was genuine, so she carefully pulled off the lid to uncover something that made her gasp softly. Inside on a soft pillow of white satin was a tiny vial on a long, silver chain. Inside the tiny vial were dandelion seeds. Without hesitating for a moment, Rosie put the necklace over her head and pulled Sirius into another slow yet passionate kiss. She loved it. It showed that Sirius knew her well, extremely well enough to get her a present that meant something special to her. Her lips still touching his, her mouth broke into a huge grin and she whispered to him, "Oh...I love it. Sirius...it's beautiful." Pulling away to do what seemed to analyse her face, Sirius smiled and whispered. "They're wishes Rosie, all for you. I know you hate it when people blow these seeds away, it's like they're deserting their wishes. So, here's my wishes for us."

* * *

For the rest of the day, the couple camped out by the fire, drinking mugs filled to the brim with hot chocolate and roasting marshmallows. Sirius had to wait for Rosie's gift, as it was something she couldn't exactly give him in a gift box. Although, she did suppose she could've put a bow on it. A big bow...Both of them had napped by the fire, having pulled various pillows and blankets from cupboards and making a large, comfortable bed of sorts. Neither had slept well the night before. Rosie had been having one of her particularly bad nightmares and had screamed, quite a bit. Sirius had gotten up to comfort her and after he'd woken her, she refused to go back to sleep, already feeling extremely guilty for waking him. Because of her he hadn't been sleeping properly, instead opting out to follow in her footsteps out of support and use coffee as their only means of not collapsing to the floor and falling asleep then and there. The fact that _her _insomniac tendencies were having a negative effect on the man she loved, made Rosie feel exceptionally guilty. It was a welcome relief for them both to just lounge by the fire, flittering in and out of sleep as they watched the snow swirl around in the gentle breeze out the window.

* * *

Rosie couldn't help sneaking looks at James and Lily, who were currently snuggling in an armchair, the space nearly non-existent between them. It was as if that magical date that James had planned from them had finally smashed down the barriers Rosie knew she usually kept into place. Lily was letting James in, opening herself up to get hurt and it brought a bright smile to her face to see two of her best friends as happy as she was. She looked over at Sirius, who was still quietly sleeping. Gently, she pushed his hair from his face, causing his eyes to shoot open. Sirius's eyes were wide and he was tense until understanding dawned on him, giving her a sleepy yet sheepish smile.

Rosie shrugged and kissed him gently, whispering against his lips, "Time for your present," She softly bit his lip before scrambling to her feet, pulling him with her and towing him hurriedly up to her bedroom. She heard Sirius laughing softly as she nearly tripped and face planted the stairs multiple times but didn't. Although, she did notice Sirius instinctively walk closer to her, close enough that if she tripped he'd be able to catch her before she sustained any serious damage.

* * *

Once they'd reached the room, Rosie gently pushed Sirius onto the bed, before carefully climbing onto his lap in a way so that she was straddling him, her arms wrapped around his neck and her forehead pressed to his. She could feel her heart rate increasing and she noticed that about a million butterflies seemed to be currently using her stomach as their home. Rosie wanted to do this, she was just...scared...as any girl in her situation for the first time would be. Slowly, Rosie started to kiss Sirius, before quickly pulling away and whispering,"Merry Christmas Sirius," as she pushed him back against the mattress and kissed him more passionately.

* * *

Sex. Rosie had never understood why people seemed so hooked on the thing, but with her head pillowed against Sirius's bare chest, and her cheeks still bright red from the memory of giving Sirius his gift, she finally understood. The experience seemed to make their love for one another run deeper and Sirius kept trailing soft kisses along her neck as he twirled a strand of her hair around his finger. Catching her eyes, Sirius grinned, brushed his lips against hers and whispered, "Best. Christmas. Ever."


	25. Chapter 25

_**Chapter 25;**_

_**Note: This is set Christmas Eve. **_

* * *

James's POV

It was Christmas Eve and not a sound could be heard in the Potter household. Not a person was awake, well, except James Potter, who was staring at his clock and willing the little, red numbers to change. It seemed as if the clock was running slower than usual, just to mess with his head. And mess with his head it was. He only wanted to make Christmas the most perfect event for Lily, as it was her first Christmas without her parents. Lately, he'd noticed the decline in her moods as the holiday grew closer. Everyone in the household had been trying their hardest to distract her. They'd taken her shopping, (James, Sirius, Rosie and Remus) which only ended up making her feel worse and had gotten Rosie and Sirius into trouble by a book shop owner. How had they managed that you might ask? Snogging behind a book seemed to not be the owner's idea of 'properly using a book'. Anna Lee had encouraged her to cook and all that ended up doing was making Lily burst into tears and run from the room, leaving a rather guilty Anna Lee to stare after her without really knowing how to act.

James had spent days trying to coax the girl into talking to him and when she had, James had become exceedingly worried, having found out that Lily didn't even _want _to celebrate the holiday. That was not something Lily would usually do, which made James torment himself on making the perfect plan to bring Lily into the Christmas spirit. Henceforth, he'd decided to try and do anything within his power to make it amazing for her.

* * *

The only problem seemed to be, coming up with an idea that would brighten up Lily's currently stormy mood. James hated seeing Lily in those moods and it literally hurt him to not see a brilliant smile on her face. Hopefully, the plan that had taken days for him to come up with would make his girlfriend smile that radiant smile of hers. Hopefully.

* * *

With one last look at the annoying clock, James had to stifle a happy yelp. 11:30 pm. It seemed like he'd been off in la-la land for a long period of time. Well, long enough for it to bring the time close enough for him to put his plan into action. James still had plenty of time for him to get dressed and collect his sleepy girlfriend.

Sliding out of his bed, he tried to not trod on Sirius but just realised it was a lump of pillows and blankets. That caused slight annoyance to rush through James, but he tried to desperately push it down. It wasn't really anyone's fault that his best mate was spending yet another night with the nightmare prone girl two doors down.

* * *

Getting down on his hands and knees, James began fumbling around for pants,. Finally, he located a pair buried under the side of Sirius's mattress/bed. Whatever it was called, his best mate hardly used it nowadays, opting to spend the night comforting Rosie instead. James really couldn't blame his best mate for that, as Rosie was still struggling with conquering the nightmares that had been induced by the words now engraved into her once smooth skin. It seemed as if she'd been getting better through Sirius's help, but James couldn't help but miss spending time with the bloke.

After a moment of being lost in his own thoughts, James pulled on his pants, a warm, red sweater and his Gryffindor scarf, before slipping out of his room with a rolled up blanket under his arm. As soon as he'd left his room, the cool air made him shiver slightly and also caused him to crave the comforting warmth from his bed. But he couldn't go back, not now, not when Lily's happiness was at stake. So, with a few deep breaths, he crept over to the room Lily and Remus were sharing and knocked quietly before he opened the door and snuck over to Lily's bed, giving her foot a small shake.

She woke almost instantly, and he had to cover her mouth with his hand so she didn't scream. "Lils...Lils, calm down. It's me." Lily's eyes widened and she nodded, calming down almost instantly. "James?" Her voice was slightly muffled against his hand, but he heard her anyway. Quickly, James nodded and gestured outside. "Come on Lils, I have a surprise for you." Gingerly, Lily got out of the bed, James's hand finally removed from her mouth, and pulled on the thick coat and scarf he was holding out to her. Holding up a finger to his lips, James led her downstairs and out the back door, heading straight to the little river hidden in the middle of the forest.

* * *

Ice glittered in the moonlight, having covered the small river in the middle of the forest. The forest had always reminded James of a winter wonderland during Christmas, and it had remained his favourite season since he was little. No one knew about the little hideaway James had discovered. Not of the huge pine trees and the icicles that clung to the trees branches. Not of the way the stars looked at their brightest in that particular spot.

Before they'd left the house, James had collected a thermos filled with Anna Lee's fabulous hot chocolate and with the blanket still tucked under his arm, had led a still sleepy Lily into the woods.

* * *

Once they'd reached the river, Lily had looked around in wonder, her mouth open into the shape of an 'O'. "James...this place is beautiful..." She looked at him and gave him that gorgeous smile of his, the smile that always set his heart aflutter. James took her hand in his and trailed soft kissed along her knuckles. "Glad you like it, love." She smiled even wider and let him pull her close and start to sway. "Why'd you wake me up at this time?" Lily asked curiously, a special twinkle in her eye. James chuckled and carefully tilted her chin up and brought his lips down to hers. "To give you the best Christmas Ever," He murmured against her lips before pulling her even closer.


	26. Chapter 26

_**Chapter 26; **_

* * *

Lily's POV

Sniffling softly, Lily cuddled closer to James under the blanket, seeking the warmth of his body to chase away the vicious cold that had settled itself somewhere deep in her bones. James's arms tightened around her and he nuzzled his head into her neck, his soft breath causing goosebumps to erupt all over her body. They'd stayed outside in the snow for hours, just dancing close for a while then cuddling together and sipping hot chocolate he's snuck out from the house. Lily couldn't even believe that she hadn't wanted to celebrate Christmas, not when she had James so unbelievably close and kind hearted beside her. Even in his sleep, James seemed to respond to the tiniest thing she did, even when he was so far into sleep that there could have been a jack hammer centimetres away and he still wouldn't have woken. That always seemed to bring a smile to her face. It was a constant in her ever changing world. James was and always would be, an extremely heavy sleeper.

* * *

The soft knock on the door woke Lily, who had finally fallen asleep in James's arms. She was about to pull away from him and go answer the door, seeing as James didn't look like he was ready to move in any way, shape or form, when James tugged her closer and whispered into her ear. "Let them wait, love." With a small nod, she buried her head back into his chest and let her heart beat speed up to an erratic pace. That was the thing about James, he seemed to be able to make her heart speed up by just breathing on her skin or lightly running his fingers across hers. It was new to her, Lily would admit, and sometimes her reactions weren't the best and sure, more often than not she _was _a mood killer, but James seemed to accept all that about her and loved it unconditionally.

* * *

After the annoying knock had woken them both, they'd gotten back to sleep and had slept for another two hours before finally getting out of bed to face the day. When they'd came downstairs, everyone was crowded around the tree, with mugs filled to the brim of hot chocolate and their mouths stuffed with cookies as they ripped the wrapping paper off the gifts mercilessly. The simple things about Christmas brought tears to Lily's eyes, especially when she realised that she would never get to spend another Christmas with her parents. As if reading her mind, James slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, trying desperately to chase away the sadness in her heart. That simple thing, his arm around her waist, made her realise something. Sure, her family was gone, but she had another family crowded around this tree. So, giving him a weak smile, Lily promised herself that she'd enjoy herself, knowing that was what her parents would want, anyhow. After that everyone seemed to have a ball and Anna Lee put on some old Christmas music. Smirking slightly, James pulled Lily to her feet and danced her around the room. Anna Lee and William did the same, before disappearing to their bedroom and never returning, deciding to spend the rest of the day alone.

* * *

Finally, when they'd danced until they could dance no longer, James pulled Lily down on the armchair beside him and kissed her softly, but lovingly. That was another thing that she loved about James. He held her, kissed her, like she was porcelain and that if she wasn't careful, that he'd break her into a million pieces. She loved that he tried to be careful with her but it also annoyed her at times, well, more often than not. Without thinking, she cupped his face and pulled his lips to hers, kissing him hungrily. Lily had never kissed anyone like that, but kissing James like that made her heart leap happily and her breath catch in her throat.  
Well, that was until he pulled away sharply and breathlessly exclaimed. "Lily! What are you doing?" The one sentence sent Lily's heart smashing against the pavement and tears to filled her eyes. He didn't want to kiss her... was all that could make it's way through Lily's mind. James's eyes searched Lily's hungrily before he whispered. "Lils...I do want to kiss you...I just wanted to know if you wanted to come meet my mum..." He looked down when he'd asked her, scared of her reaction, Lily supposed. The simple question made Lily's heart leap and she gently kissed his cheek. "Oh James! I would love to meet your mum." With a smile, James gently kissed her lips again, snatching her breath away almost effortlessly.

* * *

James's POV

He was beyond scared about Lily meeting his mum. He was taking her into a very emotional place for him, a place where he became more fragile than usual. It was just that, he wanted to show her that he trusted her, trusted her to know about his family and to meet his mum. It killed him inside that Lily would notice the way his mother didn't recognise him. The way it felt like he was being stabbed repeatedly when he looked at her.

It was as if Lily could feel the emotional turmoil he was going through as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze, as if she was trying to support him. He found comfort from the gentle touch, as if it was a lantern burning brightly on the other side of a thick fog. A way to guide him home.

* * *

When he entered the room, he cast a terrified look at Lily before looking back at his mother. Her once beautifully soft, golden blonde hair was frail and brittle looking. Her once warm, hazel eyes were open, yet they didn't seem to focus on anything specifically and her hands worried the band of knotted rope wrapped around her wrist. It was almost instant, the stabbing sensation in his heart. Taking a deep breath, James looked at Lily, blinking rapidly to keep the tears from his eyes. "Lily...meet my mum...Delilah Potter..."


	27. Chapter 27

_**Chapter 27; Still Christmas- James and Lily are still at St Mungos. **_

* * *

Lily's POV

Lily gazed around the room, taking in the bland starkness of the four walls. It seemed as if Delilah Potter had a private room, which was quite small with only basic furnishings; a bed, a bedside table, a conjoining bathroom and multiple pull up chairs. All of the furnishings were in washed out colours like cream, tan and a green that reminded Lily of vomit. The only splash of colour that didn't make Lily want to vomit was a vase full of flowers on Delilah Potter's bedside that James had brought with him. Just looking at James made Lily's heart catch in her throat. He looked so sad and just that fact was killing Lily. She was at an absolute loss of what to do. It seemed as if James always knew how to comfort her when she was down, yet she couldn't do the same for him and it felt like someone was stabbing her in the stomach repeatedly. She tightened her grip on James's hand as he gently pulled her into one of the chairs, the cream coloured one while he sat in the vomit coloured one.

"Lily...have I ever told you about what happened to my parents?" James's voice broke slightly with emotion and that was when Lily realised he was crying. She'd never seen James cry and just the thought of it was unfamiliar to her. Carefully, Lily moved and sat on his lap, her arms wrapping around his neck and she held him close to her. "No...no you haven't James." Lily felt James wrap his arm around her waist and bury his head into her hair. His breathing was shaky on her neck as he tried to brace himself.

When he spoke, James's voice was huskier than usual and it made Lily's arms tighten around him unconsciously. "D-during my second year...a group of Death Eaters captured my dad. He was an Auror, you see, and was always on some case or other. When the Death Eaters captured him, they tortured him to the point of...to the point of i-instanity." James broke off with a small sob and Lily rushed to comfort him, whispering soft, comforting words into his ear. After a second, James wiped his eyes, where he'd been crying and continued.

"W-when mum had found out, she went insane as well. As much as it killed me...I have to admit...that's the kind of love that I want," Warmth spread through her, making her heart swell the tiniest bit at his words. The kind of love he wanted..was he saying that their love was like that? Sure, Lily hadn't said she'd loved him yet but she really did love him, it was just hard for her to show it. Trying to chase away the stupid doubts in her head, Lily gently tilted his chin up and pressed her lips to his, at a loss of what to do to comfort him. She'd never been that open with anyone before, and here James was, entrusting her with something that was clearly causing him an extensive amount of pain.

When they pulled out of the soft, loving kiss, James pressed his forehead to hers and continued his story, his voice still shaking violently. "Then during fourth year...dad passed away. Mum just seemed to get worse after that..." He broke off with another soft sob and Lily felt pain stab at her heart. She'd been terrible to James all through Hogwarts. She'd been a terror to him and hadn't even paused to realise that James could've been going through a hell of a lot. Tears filled her eyes, but Lily blinked them away hurriedly. It was selfish of her to start crying when she was in the hospital room of James's mother, his mother who seemed to not even notice her son was in the room. Her eyes stared at nothing in particular and her fingers frantically worried the braided rope around her wrist, as if without it she'd fall to pieces.

"Mum doesn't even recognise me Lils...I visit her whenever I can I she never recognises me..." Lily could here him sniffling to try and not cry and Lily held him tighter, trying to support him through this moment as best as she could. It seemed as if James couldn't keep it in any longer as he let out another sob, a louder one this time, and buried his head into the crook of his neck. He shook violently from the tears and he sobbed to her, "Lily...I don't even know if she still loves me..." Lily gently rubbed his back the whole time whispering softly in his ear, "Of course she loves you James. She might not recognise you...but she still loves you James. With all her heart."

So that was how they stayed. Lily with her arms wrapped tightly around James as he finally let out all his grief and frustration over the situation while his mother just stared blankly at the roof. Neither of them noticed her eyes flicker closed and her breathing grew fainter, softer, until Delilah Potter never breathed again.

Finally, when James had finished crying everything he'd held in for so long out, he pulled away from Lily and she tenderly cupped his cheek. He looked as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Well, that was until he looked past her and his eyes widened. Without warning, he picked Lily up as he stood, carefully dropping her onto the vomit coloured chair and hurrying to his mum's side. James started shaking her violently, panic written all over his face as he practically sobbed. "MUM! MUM! PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME MUM!" Not knowing what to do, Lily looked at James with wide, tear filled eyes before she ran from the room to collect the healer who usually took care of Delilah Potter.

When Lily came back into the room with the healer, she found James holding his mothers hand tightly while he cried. James didn't even look up when Lily walked back in and she decided it would be best if she didn't divert him from his mother. Lily felt like her heart had melted somewhere into her feet as she watched the healer kindly talk to James, just the look on his face making her want to cry as well. Lily just stood by the door, her arms crossed over her chest as she watched her boyfriend with tears in her eyes. It seemed as if no one in their little group could catch a break.


	28. Chapter 28

_**Chapter 28; **_

* * *

Sirius's POV

Sirius heard the faint knock on the door from his position on Rosie's bed, his face buried into her pillow, inhaling the sweet smell of Rosie's shampoo. He'd always loved the smell of Rosie's shampoo, like vanilla and roses. Rosie had gone to shower a few minutes before, leaving Sirius to lounge on her bed until it was his turn. Before she'd left, he'd wrapped his arms around her waist, held her close and murmured into her ear, "I'll wash your back if you wash mine," Rosie had just laughed softly, pressed her lips to his in a brief kiss and then had slipped out of his arms and into the shower, a huge smirk plastered over her face. That was exactly what Sirius loved about Rosie, she kept him on his toes. He'd think he had her figured out but then she'd do something completely different and turn his world upside down.

* * *

Another slightly louder knock pulled Sirius out of his daydream, making his head shoot up to analyse the situation. He'd slightly hoped that the knocker would go away, but when yet another knock vibrated into the room, Sirius groaned and sat up, stretching slowly and allowing his bones to give satisfying pops. He was about to get up to answer the door when he heard Rosie's sweet voice call to him over the sound of the shower. "Sirius, love? Can you answer that?"  
Yelling back, "Yes,", Sirius got out of the bed, pulled on his jeans and opened the door, ruffling his hair sleepily. At the door was Anna Lee. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was fidgeting with the ruffles at the end of her scarf absently. "Sirius...can you get Rosie, please?" Her voice was slightly soft and shook the tiniest bit, as if she was nervous. Sirius gestured into the room and to the closed bathroom door. When the silence overwhelmed them, he saw her make out the soft sound of the shower running. "Oh..well..." Anna Lee bit her lip and her hands started fidgeting with her scarf more insistently. "Rosie, dear? Can you come out for a moment?" She called, loud enough to be heard over the shower. Sirius tilted his head to the side, wondering what Anna Lee needed to talk to Rosie about, as the shower stopped. After a moment, Rosie popped her head out of the bathroom door. She had on Sirius's old Qudditch jersey and it made head shoot all over him, seeing the woman he loved in his clothes. Her hair was still damp and was blonde, which meant she'd been turning it back and forth in the shower. Personally, Sirius had never liked Rosie with blonde hair. He preferred her natural dark auburn. "Yes, Anna Lee?" Rosie asked, leaning against the door frame. Sirius could see a fair bit of her legs and his eyes widened sightly and he couldn't keep them from going up and down her body repeatedly.

Anna Lee smiled at the girl, oblivious to the ogling Sirius. "Blonde is a good colour for you, Rosie." Rosie raised an eyebrow and nodded, running a hand through her still damp hair. Sirius could just tell from her expression that she wanted Anna Lee to get to the point. She'd always hated when people danced around questions.

"Not meaning to be rude, Anna Lee, but can you hurry it up? Anna Lee's eyes widened and she nodded. "Right. James and Lily were meant to take Ali to see her mum, but they never came back. So, Will and I are taking her. But then we won't have time to cook Christmas dinner. Do you think you could do it?" Sirius felt suddenly bad for poor Ali and he saw Rosie had nodded and touched Anna Lee's arm.  
"Of course Anna Lee. Dinner will be ready when you guys get back." Anna Lee hugged Rosie quickly before hurrying away.

* * *

Sirius met Rosie's eyes and his arms snaked around her waist, pulling her closer. For moment, she relaxed into her arm and made heat shoot all through him. "Hi there, gorgeous," He murmured into her ear, his voice slightly husky. Rosie, to his amusement, sighed and pulled away, her hands instantly going to rest on her hips. "You need to go shower. And I need to get dressed. We have a dinner to cook." With an expression that caused Rosie to laugh, a playful scolded puppy dog expression, he disappeared into the bathroom to shower, his laughter echoing around the room in his absence.

* * *

Rosie's POV

"Sirius! Put that down!" Rosie snapped as she rushed over to her boyfriend, snapping the dish cloth in her hand at him to make Sirius back away from the roast she'd just removed from the oven to check. Rosie had hated spending Christmas with her parents, because of their divorce. If she spent it with her mother, she was treated like and imbecile and her mother continuously insulted her father. Sure, her dad did annoy her quite a bit, but she loved him. And if she spent Christmas with her father, she was stuck cooking four roasts, as her dad enjoyed inviting all the farm employees over for dinner. Cooking just one roast was like a vacation to her, and she did not plan to cook another one because her boyfriend had pigged out on the one she'd already made.

Sirius laughed and danced away from her, before snaking his hands around her waist and pulling her close to him. Rosie smiled and relaxed in his arms, comforted by the warmth he caused to spread through her body. "Sirius..." Rosie said reluctantly as her thoughts flickered back to the dinner she was meant to be preparing for the Potters, Lily, and Sirius and herself. A few days ago, Remus had returned home, wanting to spend the actual Christmas holiday with his parents.

* * *

As she pulled away, there was a tap on the window that Rosie deciphered as an owl. She made a gesture at Sirius so that he'd get the letter. She could hear him fumbling with the window as she checked the food, then she heard a long moment of silence. Turning around Rosie saw a ghostly pale Sirius staring at the parchment in his hand. Rosie rushed over to him, putting her hand on his arm. "Sirius...? What's wrong?" She asked softly, her voice hinted with worry. Thousands of things were rushing through her head, terrible, terrible things that scared her. He was silent for a long while before his voice finally sliced through the silence, like a knife cuts through flesh.  
"Mrs Potter is dead."


	29. Chapter 29

_**Chapter 29; **_

* * *

_**Sirius's POV**_

Sirius Black hated funerals. He absolutely hated them. He hated the way the place smelt, the way everyone was clinging to each other and sobbing and most of all, he despised the fact that this particular funeral was making him cry. Just watching Rosie hold onto Alison as if the little girl would disappear, brought a tear to his eyes, not to mention the fact that the little girl was shaking violently from tears. He could see Rosie struggling not to turn her vibrant coloured eyes back into a dull grey.

That was another thing he hated about funerals. How everyone wore black. Well, Mrs Potter, when she'd been alive of course, had made it exceptionally clear that she did _not _want anyone wearing dark colours. She'd wanted a bright, colourful funeral. And that was what everyone had done.

James had on bright red jeans, Rosie had done the necessary charms to get it that way, and a bright blue and orange shirt. Rosie had also wanted to charm his hair, but that was where James had drawn the line. He hadn't even wanted to do the coloured funeral, but when Rosie had reminded him that it _had _been his mother's wishes, he gave in.

Will was wearing about the same, except with green pants and a bright yellow top. His hair was also streaked with colour,

Anna Lee had on a bright purple dress and white shoes, she hadn't allowed Rosie to touch her hair either.

Lily and Alison had matching polka dotted dresses, with different colours. The base colour was white while Ali had yellow and green dots and Lily had blue and red dots.

While Rosie, well, she'd definitely gone out of her way to try and make this funeral as colourful as possible. Her dress was flashing all different colours of the rainbow, the same with her hair and her eyes. She also had on a sparkly top hat that followed the rainbow trend.

And the thing that Sirius hated most of all was, the speeches. Will had just finished his speech and now it was James's chance. Everyone was looking at him with big, teary eyes. Some were dabbing at their eyes with tissues while others were just staring straight a head of them, seeing but not seeing what was really going on around them. That's currently how Sirius felt, his hands digging into his bright yellow pants while he watched his best friend walk up to the podium.

"W-we're all here to say...to say...f-farewell to...to Delilah Potter...a loving mother and wife and everything." Sirius could see James's shoulders heaving as he tried not to break down, and it sent a jolt of pain shooting through Sirius as he reached for Rosie's hand. James continued his speech. "Ali and I lost mum at a young age...it was terrible on us, but it pulled our family closer together. Mum had a way of doing that. She accepted everyone. She treated Sirius and Rosie like an extension of the family and she always made the best blueberry pancakes," Sirius could see tears glittering on his face because of the reflection of the lights on him.  
"Mum always had a way of brightening everyones day. She was a splash of colour on grey and we're gonna miss her. She was like sunshine on a cloudy day and I think every single one of us have been touched by her in some way. I mean, only mum could get every single one of us to dress up like we are and still be miserable. I mean, look at us all. How can we not be smiling? Mum wouldn't have wanted all of us to be here, crying. Mum would have wanted us all to get closer. Rely on each other, because that's what we all are. We're all family, and this death...this death shouldn't divide us." By the end of it, Sirius could see tears trailing down James's face and Rosie tightened her grip on Sirius and Ali both.

* * *

There was long colourful strips of fabric hanging everywhere in the reception hall after the burial and Rosie was trying her best not to cry, Sirius could see that, as she danced with Ali. There was loud, happy music playing and an abundance of drinks and food, yet it seemed as if hardly anyone was enjoying themselves. Who would enjoy themselves at a funeral? Sure, Mrs Potter's had been different. Happier. After James's speech, everyone had gone up and talked about a happy, funny memory of Mrs Potter and sure, by the end of it, most of them were in tears, but mostly because they would never see that bubbly, amazing person again.

Sirius went over and nudged Ali towards Anna Lee, smiling fondly at the little red head. Ali had been taking her mother's death pretty hard and everyone had been trying their best to make her feel better, but it seemed as if she was only finding comfort in Rosie. "She wants to see you, sugar plum fairy." Ali laughed, which made Sirius feel happy, before running away, leaving Sirius with his colourful girlfriend. Except, her clothes were colourful, but her emotions looked as if she was feeling positively blue. His arms wrapped around her and he pulled her close to him, trying desperately to make her feel better, to chase her sadness away. "Love...come on, give me a smile." Sirius gently used his thumb to pull up the corner of her mouth, forcing her into a smile. That caused her to laugh and hold onto him, her lips actually moving into a smile. It made Sirius happy to see her smiling, laughing again. Rosie hadn't been the happiest since finding out about Mrs Potter.

She'd been a real help to Rosie and her Dad. Mrs Potter had talked to her father about Rosie's supposed "arranged" marriage and her father had dropped it. Mrs Potter had even welcomed Rosie as her own daughter when her mother and father had divorced. And she'd always been there for him. Sirius had been like a second son to Mrs Potter and she's adored him more than his own mother.

* * *

Slowly, Rosie and Sirius started to dance. Sure, they'd miss Mrs Potter, the hell of a lot, but the loss would only make them closer. Little did they know that at that exact moment, a group of Death Eaters had stormed Annastasia Hanning's house and had killed her and her parents at their dinner table. Little did that know, that Mrs Potter's death was only a small scale of horrible things going on in the world at that moment.


	30. Chapter 30

_**Chapter 30! **_

_**Authors note; Who would've thought we'd have made it! YAY! This is in Lily's POV at the reception thing after the funeral of Mrs Potter. **_

* * *

Lily felt like she was being stabbed repeatedly as she looked at James. He was sitting alone at a brightly coloured table with vivacious decorations, staring into a glass filled with amber coloured liquid, as if the simple drink held all the answers in the world. Concern for her boyfriend, the man she could very well be in love with, made every other emotion seem insignificant, almost nonexistent to her. Carefully weaving her way through the intense number of guests, which helped the fact that so many of these people had loved and cared for James' mother really hit home. When Lily finally reached James she noticed that the level of liquid in his drink had definitely depleted while she'd made the walk over. As gently as she could, Lily put her hand on James's bicep as she squatted down in front of his chair. The other hand came up to his cheek and she couldn't keep her eyes from scrolling down to his bicep. She couldn't stop thinking about how the shirt he was wearing hugged the muscle so wel- She shook her head violently and forced herself to meet his eyes. That hadn't been exactly the best idea.

The usually large, captivating orbs with that familiar mixture of warm hazel and brilliant green, were blood-shot and held a dull, pain filled appearance to them. The hand on his cheek moved up and brushed one of the runaway strands of hair from his eyes.  
"James...are you okay?"

She could see him swallowing heavily, trying to win some kind of internal war within himself. What kind of war, she did not know exactly, but she could tell it was causing James a great deal of pain and confusion.

Finally. After a few moments, James answered, "No..." Except, it was as if he hadn't answered her at all. The relatively loud music seemed to have snatched the words right from the air, never to be heard again. Except Lily had heard and felt her heart break for him slightly. She had never been good at comforting people, yet James had been brilliant, absolutely brilliant, in comforting her after her parents deaths, yet all she could offer was sad eyes and a hug.

Hastily, Lily wrapped her arms around James and hugged him tightly, trying to somehow hug away all his pain, sadness- every emotion that seemed to be causing him a great deal of emotions. As she hugged him, she desperately raked her brain for any sort of thing she could say to chase away his sadness, but couldn't think of anything that anyone hadn't already said to him.

He'd gotten the, "I'm sorry for your loss," and the, "My sincerest apologies." Even the select few, well, most of them were along the lines of; "Your mother was a great woman. Don't forget her, boy." It was startling to see how similar things were at funerals.

The speeches. The attitudes. Even the condolences. It was as if all the guests had gotten together and discussed suitable things to say to James to comfort him for his loss.

She took an extremely deep breath and murmured to him, "We should talk," As soon as those words left her lips, it was as if something broke inside of James. He jerked back as if he'd been electrocuted, pain evident in his eyes, his face and his body language. "No. Please no Lils...don't do this." She could hear pain in his voice as well and she cocked her head to the side, trying to figure out the situations.  
"James...what are you on about?" It was as if James hadn't even heard her or hadn't looked at her body language. All Lily had wanted to talk about was how he was coping with him mum's passing and finally saying goodbye. She had no idea whatsoever what he was going on about.

"I can't lose you too Lils...please no." He pulled her even closer to him and buried his face into her hair, which she'd worn down because she knew James preferred it that way. Then his words finally sunk in. Well, sunk in properly enough for her to determine the meaning behind his desperate words. Lily pulled back and locked her eyes to his. "James Potter! I am not leaving you!" To prove her point, she leaned in and allowed her lips to just brush over his. A ghost of a kiss. When she pulled back, she smirked slightly before settling herself into the chair beside him and watching him intently. "What I wanted to talk about was, how you're feeling, actually."

James' face filled with understanding and he nodded. Lily noticed he looked slightly relieved, and she took his hand and gently rubbed circles with her thumb on the back of it. His eyes flickered down, watching the comforting movements for a moment before he sighed and began to whisper into her ear.

"I'm sad Lils. Really sad, yeah...but a lot of that sadness comes from the fact that I'm not entirely sad. I mean..." He hesitated and chewed on the inside of his cheek for a bit, as if he was trying to decide on the correct way to use his words. "She hasn't been in my life for the last few years. When Ali and I needed her the most and I guess...I'm angry. Angry that she chose dad over us." Lily quickly pulled on a poker face to hide her immense shock. James hardly talked of his parents and when he did, it was always fond and filled with love. Not like now. Bitterness tinged James' voice and she could tell he'd never vocalised these feelings before.

"It was as if she was throwing us away- her _children- _for dad. It's love, sure. But what about us? We needed her too. God Lils...we needed her too..."

Without taking a second to hesitate, Lily wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly. After that, James spoke of his feelings towards his mother no more for that night. He loved her, Lily could tell that, but he was also a boy. He'd been a little kid, like anyone else, a little kid who couldn't really understand why he'd lost both his mother and father in the space of days. And of course there was the anger, that was understandable. With grief, comes anger. They always moved hand in hand. As did love and heart break.

Little did they know, that someone's romance was a lot closer to heart break than they'd realised.

* * *

DUH DUH DUHHHHHH!


	31. Chapter 31

_**HIya folks! I am back! WOohooo! After being sick and gross for the last day, I have finally written. YAY! :) Because I'm back at school now (Blargh) I won't be updating regularly, probably just on the weekends (Australian time) but if I have time, I might update during the week. **_

* * *

**Chapter 31;**

When Sirius woke up in the morning, the whole room was flooded with warm sunlight. He groaned and covered his face with his arm, trying futilely to block out the abusive light. Rosie hated sleeping with the curtains closed; yet he hated them open. He absolutely despised waking up with the sun. When he had pleaded his case, Rosie had pulled on a fairly thoughtful expression then pronounced, no. Of course the answer wasn't an exact surprise to Sirius. Rosie was a farm girl after all, and had grown up with the routine of waking with the sun most of her life.

Sirius moved his arm away from his eyes and he couldn't help smiling slightly. Rosie was still asleep- lost in the endless tides of a dream. Her hair was it's usual dark auburn and had been haphazardly tied into a knot on the top of her head, a few stray hairs escaping the bun. As usual she'd ended up sleeping with her back facing Sirius and he couldn't help but let one of his fingers come up and trace soft patterns on her shoulder blade. The fabric of the shirt she had on, his old Qudditch jersey, was soft with age and well worn.

When Sirius noticed she was starting to wake up, he quickly withdrew his hand and stared up at the ceiling, his eyes scanning over the familiar cracks that always seemed to remind him how old his best mate's house _actually _was. Sirius remembered that when he was little, he used to swear that the house was haunted. Sometimes, when he heard an unexplainable creaking, he still thought it was haunted.

Anyhow, back to the old cracks. Sirius had spent long hours over summer staring up at those cracks, thinking of the girl lying beside him. Of course, she hadn't been his girlfriend then, just an unreachable dream. He continued to just look up at the cracks for a few moments, letting his mind wander in happy memories. Those cracks, Sirius had stared at him for most of his life, that he's spent at James's home of course. His and Rosie's first time together. Rosie's first time. Nightmares; way too many to count. Those cracks had witnessed it all.

After a while, Sirius noticed how his stomach was rumbling extremely loudly and as he didn't want to wake Rosie, he slipped out of the bed. Then he paused and leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on one of Rosie's freckled cheeks. Until lately, he hadn't even known about the light splattering of freckles, that in his eyes, just made Rosie even more beautiful.

As quietly as he could, Sirius maneuvered his way through the room -dodging piles of stray news papers, random items of clothing and Rosie's endless collection of books- all of those objects lying in unorganized piles over the floorboards. It was the day before they returned to Hogwarts and it looked as if Rosie was having a little trouble packing. Yet, in Sirius's eyes, it was more like a lot of trouble. But that was the Rosie he lov- liked. Liked. He liked Rosie. Sirius couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts, to play Quidditch again with Rosie. Rosie. She was unbelievably unorganized and bloody irrational at times, but she was his girlfriend and would always have a special hold over his heart.

* * *

Once he walked downstairs, Sirius found James at the kitchen table, a steaming cup of coffee directly in front of him while he stared intently at the Daily Prophet. Sirius chewed on the inside of his cheek as he watched James for a moment, confusion clearly painted all over his face. James was looking at the paper as if it was the most important thing in the world. It was if, if he looked away for even a second, he'd miss something deathly important. As Sirius came closer, on his way to the coffee pot, he could hear James muttering under his breath. "No…no…it can't be…not her…" His incoherent ramblings made absolutely no sense to Sirius and honestly made him question the condition of his best mate's mental health. Maybe finally dating Lily Evans made him go around the bend… Sirius shook his head as he set about heating up the coffee, yet he couldn't help glancing at James with concern. It was as if James hadn't noticed he wasn't alone in the kitchen anymore, which was fairly odd for the extra observant man. Even once the coffee thingy dinged to announce that it was hot enough, James still didn't look up. Sirius frowned and busied himself with pouring his coffee into a mug and adding the right amount of milk and sugar- one and a quarter teaspoons of sugar- one being too little and two being way too sweet for Sirius's liking. When he'd told Rosie of his coffee preference, she'd laughed, called him mental and left him to make his own coffee, loudly proclaiming that there was no way in hell she could measure out "one and a quarter" teaspoons of sugar.

* * *

When Sirius had his coffee made to his specific liking, he sat himself down directly in front of James and looked at him expectantly. It honestly seemed as if James was ignoring him on purpose so Sirius did the only thing he could think of to do in that situation.

He kicked James.

Hard.

Directly in the shins.  
The kick seemed to surprise James, who gave a mighty yelp and knocked his coffee over, causing it to flood the small table. Lightning fast, he snatched up the paper out of the path of the evil river of coffee and his eyes shot up to meet Sirius's.

"What was that for, you bloody git?!"

Sirius couldn't help the smirk that slid onto his face when he thought of James' reaction, but covered it with a very fake sounding cough. "Uh…involuntary leg spasm?"

* * *

James glared at him, then held the paper out to Sirius. "Read it. All of it." Sirius looked down at the paper that read;

**Ministry Worker and Family Found Dead; Cause of Death Unknown. **

Hank Hanning, ministry worker and his family were found dead in their home during the Christmas break. His children, Annastasia and Lewis were students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and all students will be notified of their deaths once they return to school. We mourn them. Cause of death is yet to be notified.

* * *

Sirius swallowed heavily and looked up at James, his mouth gaping as the color drained from his face. "N-not Stasia…no…" James just nodded glumly and turned his head towards the staircase that was barely visible, where they could faintly hear Lily and Rosie talking to one another. Lily and Rosie…who had always been close with Annastasia. Sirius swallowed heavily again and jammed the newspaper into one of the kitchen cupboards.

"How are we meant to explain this to them…? How are we meant to tell them their friend is dead?"


	32. Chapter 32

**Hello all my lovely readers :) Guess what I made for you all? Well, due to someones demand and me being sick at home all day, I made a blog specifically for these pics. Theres pics, snippets and teasers :) blog/flowers-stars-stags**

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Chapter 32:

Rosie's POV

"Sirius! Give me the bloody Prophet!" Rosie yelled angrily, trying to jump and claim the newspaper off of her boyfriend who she really wanted to slap in the current situation. All day, he'd been trying to keep her from reading the paper and James and Sirius kept sharing secretive looks. That was what made her anger more ferocious.

The fact that Sirius was hiding something from her.

When she'd found out that her mother had been cheating on her father for the last twenty-four years, Rosie had discovered she had a _slight _trust issue. Okay, when she said slight…it was quite a big trust issue. If she had been dating anyone but Sirius, who she trusted quite a fair bit, the trust issue would've been more noticeable.

Sirius gave her a torn look and held the paper up higher above his head. That made Rosie fume.

"Rosie…I can't…it's for your own good…" Sirius's answer made Rosie's anger flare up again, as if kindling had been added to a flame. Rosie cast a look at James, who was trying to ignore Rosie and Sirius's fight. A few moments ago, he had his head buried in the fridge and now he was absently scrawling on a piece of parchment while loudly proclaiming that he despised crosswords and he couldn't see the point in someone creating them.

Rosie looked back at Sirius and crossed her arms over her chest. "Who are you to say what is and isn't for my own bloody good, Sirius?!" If there was one thing Rosie hated more than anything it was when people did things that they _thought _were for her own good. Exactly like her mother had talked her father into organizing an arranged marriage for her.

Sirius looked slightly hurt at Rosie's outburst, but he didn't lower his arm or hand over the paper. "Rosie…I'm your boyfriend… please just drop it." Rosie clenched her teeth and looked away quickly.

"You might not be for very much longer." Without looking back, she stomped up to her room. Well, in actual fact, she _tried _to stomp away.

Emphasis on the try, because as she was trying to make her dramatic exit, Sirius grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him. "What?!" Rosie yelled in annoyance. The words had barely left her mouth when Sirius grabbed her face and kissed her. It was the sort of kiss that little children shouldn't be able to see, the sort of kiss that is meant to send planets realigning. Rosie's arms came up, slightly in shock, but then she returned that heart stopping kiss. It was like they were two electric charges, her positive and he negative and that they were burning out the anger together.

When they finally broke off the kiss, Sirius leant his forehead against hers and whispered something that made her heart break.

Shatter.

However you wanted to describe it.

"Stasia's dead, Ro."

Rosie gaped at him for a moment before she shook her head desperately, trying to clear the very thought of her friend dead from her mind.  
"No! No, you're joking! Tell me you're joking Sirius! Please!" Rosie basically begged, tears filling her eyes as she registered the pain flickering in his steady grey eyes.

"I wish I could…" It was as if Sirius knew exactly what he had to do to comfort her, even before she knew. He grabbed her hands and gently pulled her towards the couch and into his lap. Without a moments hesitation, he started stroking her hair gently and whispered words of comfort into her ear.

"Hush baby…it'll be okay…" Sirius whispered over and over, almost like a broken record.

Those five words.

Over and over.

But it wouldn't be fine, not for Annastasia Hanning. She'd always been a kind girl. One of those people that could never really see anything but the good in people. Unlike a lot of people interested in Qudditch, she didn't hold a grudge and Rosie had always appreciated that as she had a way of not thinking before she opened her big mouth.

Annastasia hadn't meant to come to Hogwarts originally. She'd been a bit of a unique case. She hadn't developed any magical skills until she hit thirteen, which was generally a surprise to everyone. Most of all her father who never seemed to approve of Annastasia.

She was a magnificent seeker, friend and basically an all round nice person and she was dead.

Rosie hadn't realized she'd been crying until Sirius gently wiped away the tears falling down her cheeks. "How?" She choked out, hating how her voice was so full of tears. Sirius reached behind him, he apparently had thrown the paper when he'd gone to kiss her, and handed it to her.

Rosie gazed at the paper for a few moments; her eyes scanning back and forth over the words and her heart broke again.

* * *

After spending a while like that, neither one of them talking, the thing that snapped them back into reality was a tapping at the window. Both of their heads shot up and their eyes locked onto Rosie's little tawny owl, Pitch-Patch. It was a little owl that Rosie had bought for her dad, incase he ever needed to reach her. A letter was clamped in the multi-colored owl's beak. Rosie hurried to the window and took the letter from the little owl; gently patting it's head while she tore open the envelope.

No.

It wasn't real. It was a dream.

She stared at the letter for a moment before she flung it away from her and curled up at the end of the couch. Sirius stared at her in disbelief before he quickly fished the letter off the ground and read the words written in her father's familiar script.

Rosie knew exactly what he'd be reading. Fire. Brothers. Dead.

She let a sob escape her lips as she buried her head in her hands. She knew that they'd die eventually, but not like that. Not so young.

Sirius kneeled down in front of her and took her into his arms, cradling her against his chest as if she was as breakable as porcelain. Well, at that exact moment, she felt like porcelain. Like her whole world was fragile pieces of glass and that slowly, everything was being shoved off the edge and away from her.

* * *

When they got up to her room, Sirius gently laid her down on her bed and sat down beside her. "How can I make it go away? The pain?" Rosie sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. She'd always used to do that when her parents would fight when she was little. It made her a smaller target. It made it seem as if she was just holding herself together.

"I honestly don't know…" Rosie whispered hollowly, looking down at her toes. She could see Sirius casting her torn looks before he finally pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Go put your pajamas on love, I'll be back." As he turned to go, Rosie quickly grabbed his hand and looked at him with big, vulnerable eyes. "You're coming back right?"  
Sirius's expression turned even softer as he gently cupped her cheek and rubbed his thumb over it. "Don't I always?" He kissed her head and turned to left the room, sending her a wink.

* * *

When he came back, he had a large bag of marshmallows in his arms and a stack of books. He held them up to her and grinned broadly. "Instant feel better items. Marshmallows and fairytales."

It was surprising how much Sirius knew her at times, but at that moment, she just allowed herself to enjoy the moment. They ate marshmallows while Sirius read her fairytales and helped dull some of the pain.

* * *

Songs;

Fix You- Coldplay


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33;

* * *

To his continued relief, James hadn't had to tell Lily about Annastasia, but man, he'd tried. He'd been about to tell her in the morning when Rosie and Lily had came downstairs but his girlfriend had told him that she was taking Ali into the village for some last-minute shopping. That's exactly what he adored about Lily. He was finally seeing the old her again. The one that made his heart skip a beat whenever he saw her or heart her melodic laughter. There was also the unspoken fact that she was one of the nicest people he'd ever met. Everything about her made his brain run absolute circles around himself and usually caused rationality to jump out the window.  
James Potter simply li-loved…LIKED her! He hadn't said he loved her…aloud. Note the aloud. His mind was his own domain and he really couldn't keep something that big from _himself._ Not that he hadn't tried. But in retrospect, James didn't really think it would benefit their relationship if he randomly blurted out that he loved her. Wouldn't it just be the icing on top of the cake of terrible things going on in his life at the moment if she _didn't _reciprocate his feelings. Except…Rosie tended to remind him that most feeling tended to be shared. But if she didn't love him and he randomly blurted that out, he'd have ruined the relationship.  
Plus, there was also the looming factor that they hadn't even been dating for a decent amount of time. Two weeks. Not even. Eleven days. The same as Sirius and Rosie but he had a suspicion that they counted their "flirting" stage as dating as well.  
Anyhow, you could _not _tell someone you love them after dating them for a total of _eleven days! _That was not even two weeks!  
James being the absolutely rational guy that he was, decided that under no circumstances would he tell Lily he loved her until they'd been together for a very decent amount of time. Decent being over a month. Maybe two. Possibly three. Depending on how long he could hold out, that was.

With a sigh, James ran his hands through his shaggy hair. It'd grown a considerable amount since summer and was starting to get on his nerves. He'd definitely need to cut it soon. Except…he thought Lily liked his hair shaggy, but currently his hair was bordering on Sirius shag-length and he doubted he looked as "devilishly handsome" (to quote Sirius) as Sirius believed he looked. Speaking of Sirius…he and Rosie were currently upstairs in her room doing God knows what. Well, then he must've been God because he knew what they were doing. Insert awkward chuckle at the disgustingly terrible joke. James knew what they were doing because he was the unfortunate bystander to their sickly sweet love. He'd been told what they were doing when Sirius had run downstairs to raid the kitchen cupboards. After their last date, the one where Sirius and Rosie had gone through nine large bags of marshmallows, Anna Lee had successfully hidden them. Or so she'd thought. Sirius had easily located a bag of the delicious sweets, tucked them under his arm and went to the study to dig through Alison's bookshelf.  
That was the difference between Rosie and Lily's coping technics. When she was upset, Rosie reverted to a frightened five year old who craved endless comfort, while Lily turned cold and shoved everyone else out of her world. James knew it was a defense mechanism- something people did when they didn't want to be hurt, and Lily had been hurt the hell of a lot.  
That was another reason he was hesitant to tell Lily about Annastasia's death. He knew that he'd have to tell her eventually but he was determined to drag it out until he absolutely had too. James didn't want Lily to bring back up her brick walls. She'd finally let him in. Had finally smashed down those walls that she'd had up between them since first year and he was extremely worried that she'd put them back up as soon as he told her. James Potter was at an absolute loss of what to do, but whatever it was, he knew he'd have to grow a set and do it soon.

When Alison and Lily had returned, James was sprawled out by the roaring fire, his racing broom and a rag in his hand. He'd decided that it was fair time he polished his broom, it _was _getting fairly grubby. It was just a bonus that it helped clear his head. Made it easier for him to make decisions. Lily had been upstairs for the past ten minutes and when she came back down, her vibrant red hair pooled down her back and she was in her pajama's. Her breath-taking eyes that always caught his attention looked slightly tired and he wondered why she wasn't curled up in bed, riding the endless tides of a dream yet. To his continued amusement, during winter Lily slept in colourful pajamas with little cow pictures on them. Sometimes, he loved to tell her, she looked cowlourful, which tended to just earn him a few pointed glares. It was all playful though and they both knew it.  
She sat down beside him and gave him a fairly sleepy smile, her eyes taking in his rugged appearance. James knew exactly what she'd be seeing. Hole-filled jeans, coffee stained black Rolling Stones t-shirt. Not to mention his overly long hair and his smudged glasses. Lately, he'd noticed how smudged they'd become but he was too lazy to actually clean them.  
Lily reached out and gently pulled his glasses from his face. Instantly, everything blurred around the edges as he tried to see without the constant frames. "How can you see with these? They're smudged!" She scolded him as she cleaned his glasses, well, that's what he thought she was doing. James couldn't really see anything at the moment.  
Once she was done, she leaned in and carefully put his glasses back on his face. Her lips came down to brush against his and he felt his heart leap as he forgot about the broom in his lap and was lost in the soft sensation of Lily's lips on his. James pulled her closer to him and allowed his hands to tangle into the red locks of her hair, his lips moving against hers with a deep, burning urgency.

They stayed like that for quite a while, both of them lost in the feeling of each other's lips. They found comfort in each other, or more accurately, James found comfort in hers. He knew he had to tell her about Annastasia, but he didn't know how. When they'd both pulled away, their breathing coming slightly heavier, he reached over and pulled the newspaper out from under the couch. Sirius had shoved it there when he'd come down on his marshmallow hunt. Without uttering a word, James laid the paper on her lap and looked at her expectantly, bracing himself for the walls to come slamming back up. For him to be so violently shoved out of her world after all the hard work they'd been through.

James was bemused to notice Lily's beautiful eyes grown wider as they scanned over the printed script, the picture, as if she couldn't believe her very eyes. "I-I can't believe this…you're kidding, right?" Her voice was soft and vulnerable, so unlike the strong, stubborn, music-like voice that he was used to. Especially with Lily. "Afraid not, love. " James whispered as he carefully pulled her close to him and rubbed soothing circles along her back. He could feel her body, frozen in his arms, but he didn't stop trying to comfort her.

"James…what's that?" Lily whispered. She'd been on James's lap for the last hour, and the past forty minutes of which she'd actually spent with her face buried into his muscular chest. James followed the direction of Lily's eyes and his fell on the crumbled piece of parchment by the window. With a small shrug, she clambered off his lap and snatched up the parchment. It was a long, awkward pause until Lily looked up and locked eyes to James. "Oi…can we go somewhere? Like, now?"


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34: **

**Author's note; Becuase I have not updated in AGES I made this chapter extra long. Enjoy :) **

Hunter Ranch. Lily had always loved the rather large property her best friend had grown up on. It wasn't the fact that the place always was so peaceful yet busy and entertaining at the same time. Everyone who lived there put their maximum amount of help into the farm, to sustain it and its profit. The property was huge, as Rosie had told Lily about half a million times. There was hundreds of fenced off paddocks filled with multiple animals- horses, cows, sheep, goats, heck even a donkey named Bernadette. Directly across from the paddocks were the stables where the old, pregnant, injured or horses up for sale were kept. Even though she attended Hogwarts, Rosie still felt passionately about her father selling the horses, as Lily had been told hundreds of times. It did sort of make sense though. Rosie was the one who basically rose and cared for the horses their whole lives, she'd grown attached to them like any person would. It was like someone trying to sell a mother's child, she wouldn't let that happen and she would put up a hell of a fight to keep him or her safe. That was exactly what Rosie was doing in Lily's eyes so whenever her best friend went off on one of those tangents, she just nodded and pitched in helpful comments when she could get a word in.

Anyhow, behind the stables was the forest that Rosie had gotten lost in billions of times. Her brothers had told Lily it seemed like the youngest member of the Hunter family had gotten lost there four times every hour, meaning one of the older boys had to venture into the forest to find her. Rosie had always been funny that way, apparently.

Beside the stables was the large double story house where Rosie had explained to Lily, more than once, that a fraction of the workers lived there all year round. Those were the workers that Rosie had grown up with, the ones who had been working on Hunter farm since "before the beginning of time". They'd always seemed to look at Lily funny in her opinion, and Rosie occasionally. Lily had always believe these looks followed times when the Marauders, herself or Rosie were a bit _too _loud while talking about Hogwarts.

Rosie's brothers had explained countless times about how hard it was to explain to those workers where Rosie disappeared to for most of the year and why when she did come back, she was throwing odd items of clothing like robes into the washing piles.

Directly in front of the house was a large vegetable garden that took about ten people to maintain the crops and the field. Diagonally across from there was the garden, which was directly below the window to Rosie's room.

And across the veggie garden was the huge barn. The wood was painted a warm red with white trimming, and the barn, instead of containing huge bales of hay and other farming tools, as well as various farming supplies, had been completely converted into a sort of house for all eight of the boys.

When Lily and James apparated to the ranch, it was dark and the moonlight reflected off the huge man-made lake like structure that Rosie had named "The Puddle". Even with the dim light, it wasn't hard for Lily to see what had happened. It was like when she'd seen the letter; she hadn't believed it and had desperately wanted to come here to prove that thing wrong. Her sadness could wait. She knew that if Rosie had even glimpsed that thing, which apparently she had, her whole world would've gone crashing down around her. It was Lily's duty as her best friend to prove it wrong.

But she couldn't.

Well, she couldn't deny that that huge red and white barn hadn't been burnt to the ground, leaving only the charred skeleton of the building. It seemed as if only the building had been effected, the rest of the farm seemed picture perfect to Lily.

She kept a firm hold on James and towed him over to the wreckage, while he tried to hold her back the whole time. She needed to investigate. See if the rumors were true. See if her brothers had been killed in the devastating turn of events.

The fire had completely wrecked the place and Lily felt the saliva forming a ball in her throat, ready to strangle her. It was hard, trying to search ruins for dead bodies she knew Mister Hunter must've gotten rid of. It just didn't seem fair on anybody lately. The numbers of deaths were skyrocketing lately, not just in the wizarding world but the human as well, and this particular accident did _not _seem like an accident.

Without speaking a word to each other, they dispatched to search different sides of the barn. Their eyes had searched each other's and had come to a mutual understanding, after a soft kiss had been shared of course. Lily couldn't tell what was going through James' brain at that moment, but she knew what was going through hers. She had to prove that they were alive. Possibly injured but breathing, sharing this planet.

After about five minutes of searching, Lily felt a hand grasp her arm and she jumped about nine feet in the air before turning to meet the lined and aged face of Mister Hunter. He was holding a torch in his hand and Lily could see the definite bags under his warm brown eyes. Sadness was evident all over his face and Lily felt her heart break as she realized what the sadness meant. It meant that someone had died. No matter how she didn't want to read into it, she couldn't help but put those simple puzzles together.

Rosie had told Lily about how her father never would owl her when things broke down at home because he knew exactly what his stubborn daughter would do. She'd give up everything. Her hopes, dreams, her life in the wizarding world if her family needed her.

"Sir…I got your letter." Lily said, her voice soft and broken. It was odd to hear her voice that second. Neither her nor James had spoken the whole while they'd been at Hunter Ranch and she'd grown accustom to the soft snores of animals, the sounds of bodies shifting in hay and the crickets chirping yet had forgotten her own voice.

The man seemed to recognize who she was and let her go, clearing his throat and shoving his left hand into the pocket of his dark blue jeans, which looked as if they'd been mended upon countless occasions.

"Lily. What're you doing here? And is Posey with you?" Lily's heart had broken slightly at the sound of his voice, it was filled to the brim with sadness like a pot which had began to boil, his sadness spilling over the proverbial edge. Lily also knew that Rosie's father tended to refer to her by her middle name, which to her continued discontent was Posey.

"Rosie, she didn't come sir. She's in a right state, you see. She received your letter but couldn't do anything about it. She was just too shocked and sad… so James and I came to see if it was true."

Mister Hunter nodded and gestured towards the house before saying in a much louder voice, which Lily knew James, on the other side of the skeleton, would easily hear.  
"Well…come inside you two. I'll get you both a cup of tea and myself a whiskey." With a nod at her, he started off without another word. That was something you had to get used to about Mister Hunter, he was not and never had been, one for goodbyes.

Both of them had followed him into the large, cozy house, glad for the warmth the roaring fire in the sitting room brought to their cold and shaking bodies. While Lily and James sat down in front of the fire, Rosie's dog Patrick sprawled out by their feet, Mister Hunter made tea. He warned them to be quiet though as most of the workers were either asleep or retired for the evening and he did not want any of them exhausted for the workday tomorrow.

Pictures on the wall depicted a large family. Most of them boys, all either tickling, playing or winding up a girl with messy auburn hair. A few pictures depicted the same girl with pale blonde hair; some even had her with black hair hanging there. Anyone who wasn't magical would've either assumed that she had multiple sister or horrific parents who allowed their young daughters to dye their hair so early.

When he returned he handed over two cups of tea and sat down in his favorite armchair, the exhaustion clear in his face.

"It all happened last night. While we were asleep. None of us saw it coming." His voice broke from emotion and all Lily wanted to do was wrap the man in a hug and never let go.

"Five of them, Louis, Sam, Jake, Andy and Hamish didn't make it. The others did. They had some nasty burns and were taken to the hospital up in London." Lily's heart sunk. She remembered countless summers spent with those men, all of them like an extended family to her.

"Nate found this. By the wreckage. He thought the circumstances were too suspicious and went to investigate." Mister Hunter's voice broke with sadness, yet he passes something to Lily that she thought she would never in her life see Mister Hunter posses.

A wand.

Sending a look to James, Lily could tell that his feelings that he'd let show on his face mirrored the rollercoaster of emotions she was feeling right that second. How the heck had a wand ended up on Hunter Ranch? Who had brought it there and why had they set the barn on fire while eight innocent men slept inside its depths? None of it made sense to Lily so she did the only thing she could think of.  
She did magic.

"Prior Incantato."

Instantly a ball of fire erupted from the wand and settled onto the fire and Lily just stared at it, confusion evident on her face. Luckily James thought on his feet and hastily snatched the wand off Lily and mumbled, "Aguamenti." A small jet of water shot from the wand and doused the fire. They both turned to look at each other and said at exactly the same time.

"What is a wand doing here? And why was the last spell cast Incendio?"


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35; **

**Author's note; I was writing this while I should be studying because I love you all and I hope you appreciate it. **

* * *

While James left Lily to play with the dog, James went off to speak privately with Mister Hunter. He knew for a fact that he'd owled Rosie for a reason and he needed to know that reason. James wasn't exactly sure what he would do when he found out "said' reason but he'd think on his feet. He was good at that, always had been. So while Mister Hunter paced the already spotless kitchen, picking up multiple items and moving them from place to place, like an endless cycle, James fiddled with his fingers, at an absolute loss of what to do.

The silence went on for what seemed like years, Mister Hunter still locked in the continuous lost cycle and James stood there, thinking. He thought of everything he could think of. The barn was also where most of the farm stock was kept and he had a huge suspicion that a hell of a lot of the stock had been lost in the fire. If five of the brothers hadn't made it out, there was no chance that they would've prioritised some stock.

So, after a while, James finally interfered and took the objects from Mister Hunter's hands and gestured to the large wooden table. The Hunter's had always had huge everything. Farmlands. Meals. Tables. The houses. Everything was huge because they held a sense of community. Well, Mister Hunter did. Mrs Hunter, wait no, Lauren Anderson, had always despised how giving her husband was. Rosie had told this to James multiple times and even though her face showed distinct disgust and on rare occasions, hatred, he knew she still loved her mother. But there was also the lingering factor that Lauren had cheated on Mister Hunter, for fifteen years. Rosie was only fifteen when one of her brothers had walked into the supply shed to find his mother in a compromising position with one of the workers. Then all the truth had spilled out and after the separation of her parents, Rosie had become accustomed to spending Christmas and Easter at Hogwarts, well, until James had offered her to come with him.

James really couldn't blame the girl for not wanting to face her mother anymore. It was a cruel realisation for Rosie to think that when her mother had had her, she'd already began cheating on her father. He also knew that Rosie hated the worker who had torn her family apart and like her brothers, refused to even visit their mother for Christmas. But that was when little Rosie's nature would get the better of her, because no matter how much she despised the situation, she would always send her mother some flowers and a Christmas card. Of course James knew that Rosie would spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with her family but then she'd either return to Hogwarts of stay with James.

* * *

"Sir...would you like me to get you anything? Whiskey? A cup of tea? Coffee maybe?" James asked as he turned to face the old man, trying to comfort him in anyway. He could see Lily from where he was standing. She had her cheek pressed to the fluffy carpet, the dog curled up beside her while she dozed in front of the fire. Looked like her tiredness had gotten the better of her. Upon giving his attention back to Mister Hunter, James saw him shake his head.

"No thank you, son. I just need to speak with my daughter. Immediately." That comment, filled with such urgency, made James' curiosity spike. He pulled out the chair directly across from the man and made himself comfortable, an open expression on his face.

"Why sir? You very well know that Rosie will be returning to Hogwarts on the morrow?" Internally, James was laughing. Had he actually said that? _On the morrow? _What was there about Mister Hunter that made him speak like he was from the ages with princesses and princes, knights and lords.

"Because, the majority of our stock was destroyed in that fire. We'll be up to our necks in dept and Rosie is the key out of it." Mister Hunter replied, his fingers tapping out a random pattern on the wood. That simple movement sparked the feeling of deja vu to course through James. He distinctly remembered Rosie informing him that her father had giveaway for his emotions, that easily seeped through the man's poker face. The girl had boasted on more than one occasion that because of her skill to read the give aways, she'd been able to dance around her father's rulings for most of her young years. The finger tapping...James wracked his brain, trying to remember what that was meant to give away. He knew it was something big and he knew that Rosie had made a big deal of teaching him that particular give away, like her very future relied on it.  
Clearing his throat, James tried to pry some answers from the man while his mind worked over time to decipher the clue. "The key out of it, sir? How is Rosie the key out from it? She barely works here anymore, only during the Summer and that's a good few months away...the farm will be bankrupt by then." Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! James thought as he saw the muscle in Mister Hunter's jaw begin to twitch. That give away he had remembered, muscle twitching equaled a very, very angry farmer.

"A farm only a few kilometres from here has offered to join their property to theirs, help us out of bankruptcy that is no doubt around the corner." Suddenly it all made sense to James. Join the property. He knew what Mister Hunter was going to do and why Rosie was a key part in the plan.

A while ago, when they'd first met Rosie during their first year, she'd been an innocent little girl who wanted nothing more than to be free. The reason she wanted to free, huh? Because she was trapped in the little world her father had created for her. The whole course of her future seemed to have been lined up for her before she could even talk, and that was saying something because Rosie had reminded James time and time again that she was an early talker.

Her future, well, what of it James could remember, include an arranged marriage the second she turned eighteen.

James opened and closed his mouth a few times, in an attempt to pull all his thoughts and their odd courses into one organised pile. Obviously it didn't work so what ended up coming from his mouth was;

"B-but...done...arranged...let off...how come? Confused...Rosie..." Mister Hunter narrowed his eyes slightly at him before sighing and reclining onto the back two legs of his chair.  
"Listen here, mate. I understand you and Posey are close, always have been, but this situation has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with Rosie, my sons and me. Not you. So go back to your magical world and let my daughter do what has to be done to keep this family alive."

Anger coursed through James' body, making his blood boil. Well...not literally, because if someone's blood boiled they would die and what a horrific way to go, in James' opinion. He knew Rosie, better than most people. He knew how much the idea about an arranged marriage angered her. She was a dreamer, their Rosie and James knew she wanted nothing more than to be free from the muggle world.

One situation seemed to be fresh in his mind at that moment of time, although it had slight relevance James really wished it would take a back seat so he could continue bickering with Mister Hunter.

It was during the summer before their fifth year. About four days before they were to return to Hogwarts James received an owl from Rosie who said she was staying at the Leaky Cauldron until school began again. When he'd gotten to the room Rosie was staying at, Sirius was there and the girl was explaining to him why she was there and not home and that she wanted a tattoo. Both boys had tried to talk Rosie out of it, but she'd been adamant. So they'd gone down Knockturn alley and had gotten Rosie her tattoo. It was just under her bra-line, and it had been done in golden ink that shimmered. The tattoo was of a bird and the little thing flapped it's wings occasionally. At the time, James hadn't understood the significance of the tattoo but now he did. Her whole life she'd been like a little bird in a cage, wanting nothing more than to spread her wings and now she'd gotten a taste only to be recalled back in.

"None of my business? Do you think Rosie even wants this? She's never wanted this life that you've painted up for her! She wants to help people! To make a difference and by god, she'll be a magnificent healer if you keep her out of this!"

Mister Hunter looked absolutely murderous. "She's my daughter and the contract was already written and signed when she was young! If we join together with that farm my daughter will be happy and we won't have to sell the family farm!"

* * *

With a growl, James shoved away from the table and stomped over to Lily, scooped the sleeping girl into his arms and then looked back at Mister Hunter. "Think about this. Do you really think Rosie will be happy about this? Are you really doing this all for her, or you?" Without pausing to hear the response James apparated back home to find Rosie and Sirius sitting in the lounge room, spooning soup into their mouths.

* * *

After laying down James explained everything to Sirius and Rosie, the whole time the lump in his throat grew harder to swallow, especially when tears started to run down Rosie's pink cheeks. James hated hurting her, with a passion. When he'd pulled the wand out, Rosie held her hand out, soft hiccups coming from her. Reluctantly, James handed it over and she just stared at it for a moment before whispering a name,

"Peter."


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36**:

Author's note: Sorry it took so long for this guys, I was planning *evil villain laugh* I'll probably update twice a weekend if I don't have anything on, so stay tuned.

* * *

The train ride back to Hogwarts was bloody eventful to say the least, and eventful was putting it nicely.

No one could believe that James Potter had finally gotten **the **Lily Evans to go out with him. And he hadn't used one of the unforgivable curses to get her to. Or so some people believed. A lot of the student body was currently split between believing that they were dating or betting that they would break up.

And then the thing that shocked everyone the most was the fact that Rosie Hunter was officially dating Sirius Black.

Most of the students had known it was coming for a while, but no one actually expected the pair to give in to their emotions. A lot of them had bet that they'd never give in and the sexual tension around them would soon grow so unbearable that they would stop their friendship all together.

But that hadn't happened and to say the least, a whole lot of the male population on the Hogwarts Express, was walking around sulking.

The only thing that kept all of them remotely sane was bombarding Sirius for detail after detail.

And let's just say, a few of them were sulking over a few other reasons.

Like what?

Well…possibly a few broken jaws and noses, but no one could ask such degrading questions to Sirius Black about his girlfriend.

Rosie just sighed and shook her head, tapping her foot as she looked out the window, taking in the scenery she'd longed for for so long.

But she couldn't shake the feeling of unease from her body and she couldn't help noticing that the hairs on her arms up. That definitely wasn't normal.

Usually she felt at ease on the Hogwarts express, but today it was different, like something extremely big would soon happen.

Everyone else seemed extremely fine, well…not everyone.

Remus was lost in the world of a book, content to be excluded from all the provocative questions and flyaway fists.

Lily and James were happy enough with playing exploding snap, which Lily was extremely bad at as she lost almost every game. Glad for the distraction, Rosie joked that the only reason she kept Lily around was because she was bloody terrible at a large portion of wizard's games.

And Sirius, well he was being Sirius. He spent a large majority of the time sketching drawings of motorcycles, though no one could see them but Rosie from her vantage point.

"What are you up to, Black?" She asked cheekily as she pulled the parchment out from under him so she could see it better.

Immediately, Sirius tried to snatch it back but Rosie just stood up on the chair, knowing he couldn't get to her from there. Well, merely hoping that he couldn't. But he could.

He grabbed her around her legs and threw her over her shoulder, Rosie giving a slight scream as her head banged into his back. She was fine for a few moments, it was only Sirius, and anyhow, until she noticed there was blood on the back of his shirt. Lifting a hand, she wiped the back of it across her nose and noticed a long smear of blood.

Blood.

Rosie Hunter couldn't stand the sight of blood. It made her feel physically sick and the world started to spin furiously until she blacked out.

* * *

When she woke up again, she felt her head pillowed on someone's lap, most likely Sirius'. Rosie felt slightly better but she felt slightly far-off and creeped out at the dream she'd had.

It had been in accordance to her arm, the scarred one. She could see a mass of images and faces, faces that she couldn't possibly understand why they were in that mess.

She'd calmed down somewhat before she opened her eyes and met the concerned stare of Sirius.  
"Heya, Red. How're you feeling?"

Giving him a weak smile, Rosie pushed herself up into a sitting position, feeling slightly better.

Until she saw _his _face.

Not knowing why exactly, she screamed and scrambled back on the seat until her back was firmly pressed against the window.

"Don't touch me. Please don't touch me!"

Confusion crossed everyone as they took in one of the strongest woman they knew, cowering in the corner. Sirius moved so that he was kneeling beside her and gently grasped her chin in his hand, turning it to face him.

Rosie flinched slightly as he came into her line of sight and tried to pry Sirius' fingers from her chin.  
"Let go. Let go, please! He'll do it again. He'll hurt me again."

Feeling like he'd been stung, Sirius jerked his hand away from his girlfriend and gave Lily a helpless look.

Gesturing with her hands that she didn't know what to do either, she sighed and took a step towards her best friend, her emerald green eyes surveying the whole scene.

It wasn't usual for Rosie to act like this. She never acted like that but something; something had done something to make a little bit inside her snap. And snap it had. But what was happening? Who was scaring her?

James looked as helpless as Lily but he squatted down by Rosie and started to whisper to her, words that were muffled against her dark mane of hair. Her replies were the same, desperate and scared out of his wits.

"Please get rid of him! Get him out! He'll do it again, James! Don't make it happen again."

With a soft sigh, James gave Sirius a look and jerked his head in the direction of the door, strongly believing that Rosie was freaking out due to something that included Sirius.

So, feeling extremely hurt and rejected, Sirius left the room and was about to close the door until he heard Rosie cry out again.

"NO! Now he _will _hurt me! He's scared of Sirius and James together. So scared…" Sirius bolted back into the compartment and stared around the room, finally taking in that one particular person was missing and had been for a long while.

"Where's Peter?"

His question went unnoticed and unanswered as everyone was still fussing over the girl, who seemed to have calmed significantly.

Sirius was about to ask again when the train stopped with a lurch and the ceiling was blown in.


	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter 37- The Train Disaster (Part One) **

* * *

Everything happened quickly, too quickly for James' liking. The lights started flickering violently and screams filled the trains, panicked and scared. Nothing like this had ever happened, so why was it happening now? Was the question on some people's minds while others were, "Why the hell have we stopped? And what the hell is happening?"

All the people in the compartment looked at each other, Sirius successfully grabbing Rosie within seconds and pulling him to her as dust settled over the whole compartment and everyone's face's were lost in the thick, black fog.

The fog made James cough violently, his eyes squinting through his glasses as he tried to figure out what was happening and where the smoke had came from.

Shouts came from the hall and dark shapes and figures stood out among the smoke as green light added some illumination to the darkness.

Sirius, Remus and James all looked at one another. Lily seemed to be looking around her, frowning as she mumbled things to herself that went unnoticed among all the chaos.

"We need to get out there and see what's happening.' Rosie said, back to her normal confident and commanding self.

All three boys and Lily looked at the girl, eyebrows furrowed as they tried to make the same connection she'd seemingly made. When no one seemed to be following her, she sighed, ran a hand through her messy hair and said softly, but clearly.

"Death Eaters. There are Death Eaters on the train."

The words took a while to sink in where everyone coughed continuously and tried to get the fog to clear.

Then, as they sunk in, James pulled Sirius off to the side and gave him a long, hard look.

"Mate, get her to safety. Take the brooms. Make sure Lily comes with you."

Rosie, who seemingly had better hearing then a bat, came up to them, practically bristling like a pissed off animal.

"Leave? Did you just tell him to get us to _leave, _James Potter!? How could you?" More screams made her head shoot up, recognition lighting her eyes, as the scream sent pain-stabbing right into James' heart.

Alison.

"The first years!"

Those three words came out and then she was gone in a second, disappearing into the unknown fog with nothing but her wand to protect her.

"Fuck." Sirius spat as he grabbed his own wand and took off after the girl, leaving James alone with Lily and Remus.

"We have to go get her and help the other students." Lily said finally. Her voice clearly said that she was Head girl and she needed to protect the other students. And that made James' stomach lurch.

She could get hurt, or worse.

Rosie was already out there with his best mate and he had absolutely no idea what to do to get her back to safety without harming Lily.

Not to mention the scars on her arm acting like a magnet to Death Eaters. Lily could hide, if worst came to worst, but Rosie couldn't.

A plan formulated in his mind, a plan that he knew would make him seem like a horrific twat to Lily but he didn't care. He had to at least protect one of the things that meant so much to him while he rounded up the others.

The only thing keeping him sane that moment was the thought that Rosie would be near Alison and would never ever let anything happen to the kind-hearted girl.

So, swallowing hard, James finally said. "Fine. Okay. We'll go. Just…Lily, grab my cloak, would you?"

A sigh escaped the beautiful girl's lips, clearly thinking that they didn't need the cloak with all the fog, but she did it.  
As soon as her back was turned, James yanked Remus from the compartment and slammed the doors closed, muttering a spell as Lily ran up to them and tried yanking them open.

"JAMES POTTER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? LET. ME. OUT!" She screamed, banging on the glass as he placed a hand over hers, glass and the dark fog covering them.

"Just…stay here, Lily. Please."

Remus shared a look with James, took his wand out and ran down one side of the hall, as screams grew louder all around them.

The lights increased and the fog grew denser, but James kept his eyes locked onto Lily's.

Or he tried.

They were ripped away as coldness filled the whole hall and a dark figure loomed from the fog.  
A figure that sent chills through the Qudditch captain's body.

Lord Voldemort.

"James Potter." He sneered, lips bared back to show two lines of teeth. "Sad to see you haven't yet joined the pathways of your parents."

Lily kept banging on the compartment door, her shouts getting louder, but they were only a nagging sensation in the back of his mind.

Right now it was focused on one thing.

One thing that had caused the death of two of the people he cared about most in the entire world.

His mouth opened and closed, all the words running around his brain, yet nothing came out and that caused the dark man to laugh.

"Cat got your tongue? You have a choice before I kill you."

Voldemort came closer and no one seemed to be noticing the way the read headed girl had fallen silent inside the compartment or how a thoughtful expression coloured her face as she pointed her wand at the door, muttering something over and over.

"Join me and you will live."

James opened his mouth to say something but the words were yanked away as the compartment door was blasted open and Lily Evans stepped out in a flurry of dust and black smog.

"He'll never join you." She said, her wand still raised and pointed directly at the man, her eyes never leaving his as she moved to stand beside James.

"Wont he? I know that one of my Death Eaters have already dealt with your sister and now has the other red head." Voldemort sneered, amusement evident in his voice as he saw the expression on James' face change to one filled with absolute pain.

Alison and Rosie.

No.

If Voldemort thought that hurting his loved ones would get him to join the Death Eaters, get him to turn his back on everything he ever believed in, he was dead wrong.

The fact that he'd done that just made James want to fight harder. Fight so that they could be avenged.

"I'll never join you." James spat, his voice loud, clear and strong as images filled his mind's eyes. Images that weren't his.

Alison, screaming and writhing around on the floor as someone cackled, shouting "CRUCIO!" Over and over.

Then Alison disappeared and was replaced by Rosie, someone holding her down as words were carved onto her other arm. Every movement of the knife caused her screams to get louder, more pained and panicked.

Her eyes looked haunted.

"Wont you? If you join me, the girl's will live. And we'll even let you keep the mudblood pet." He gestured over to Lily, who looked ready to kill.

James looked him hard in the eye, his mind whirling as he tried to make his decision and when he did, a little part of him died.

"I won't join you. Ever."

A death eater ran up, looking extremely panicked.

"My lord, we must leave! Dumbledore's coming."  
Anger vibrated off Lord Voldemort like a magnetic field, looking from Lily to James and then back to his servant.

Finally, he growled and looked at them, spitting to them before he left the train.

"Next time, Potter, you and the mudblood won't be so lucky."  
When they blinked, he was gone, the fog disappearing with it to leave behind nothing more then the choices and decisions made during the fight.


	38. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38: **

Author note: This chapter starts from where Sirius ran off to get Rosie, so this was happening parallel to most of the last chapter.

* * *

"Fuck." Sirius spat as he grabbed his own wand and took off after the girl, leaving James alone with Lily and Remus. His mind whirled as he ran down the hall, dodging people as he tried to keep the active red head in his sights. The fog and screaming people made it extremely difficult to keep her in his sight and panic filled him as green curses shot through the air, loud chorus' of "Crucio." Filling the air.

Screams filled a compartment nearby until he heard the compartment door slam shut, the loud sound of the lock turning making his blood run cold.

They were all first years, you could tell by the fear evident in their eyes as they tried their best to help but they couldn't. They were horribly lacking when they'd only learned a small number of spells, which they could hardly do.

An internal war started to take place inside Sirius. He could either leave the young children to face the horrific people alone so he could locate his girlfriend or he could help them.

The latter won out after a long debate, the leading argument being the fact that Rosie had always been extremely skilled in charms and could defend herself while the small children could barely keep themselves from pissing their pants.

Sirius bolted towards the compartment, firing hexes as he went, trying to hold off the dark figures moving towards him from all directions.

It was too much.

What the hell did they want and how had they stopped the train? Everyone knew the Hogwarts train was enchanted, yet, when he thought about it properly, it was the perfect place to attack.

Parents would be worried as the one place they thought their children would be safe was infiltrated within minutes.

And even better, no teacher ever took the train to the school; meaning defenceless children were completely at their disposal.

Or so they thought.

People were fighting back the only way they knew how.

Hexes and spells zoomed overhead, matching every curse with absolute precision.

Older years defended the younger, told them to hide while the hallways grew more crowed with his fellow students.

A flash of red hair caught his attention and Sirius grabbed her wrist, pulling her tight against his body. Unfortunately for him, the fog made his face unreadable and he copped a right hook straight to the jaw.

Fuck, that girl could pack a punch when she put her back into it.

He shot up, holding a hand to his jaw as Rosie held her wand against his neck, the tip digging into his jugular in a threatening way.

"Don't. Touch. Me." She practically snarled, jabbing the tip of the wand in slightly, causing Sirius to hiss in pain as he tried to talk around his jaw, which just happened to be broken.

Great.

Thanks for that Rosie. Fuck, besides the pain, the fact that she could break a guys jaw was pretty bloody ho- snap out of it Sirius. His girlfriend was threatening him with her wand to his throat and that definitely wasn't a position you didn't want to be in, especially when Rosie Hunter was on the other end of the wand. Her eyes looked horribly dark and angry, her hair framing her face in a way that shadowed the rest of her face.

"Iht meh." Sirius mumbled around the blood, gesturing in a way that wouldn't set her off.

He'd come to the conclusion that his girlfriend sometimes acted like a skittish horse when she was angry and the slightest movement could set those things off.

Slowly recognition lit her eyes up and her mouth opened into a small O shape as she stepped back and pushed her hair from her eyes.

"Fuck. Sirius." She said quietly, sidestepping out of the way so one of the idiot Death Eaters ran straight into a wall.

He had to admit, the girl could definitely kick arse better than a lot of men he knew.

"I'm so so-" Rosie was cut off, her eyes darting around as they tried to locate the source of the distraction.

A blood-curdling scream.

"The first years." She started to dart off, but Sirius yanked her back into him, mumbling slightly as he tried to hold her there.

The fact that he was holding her back, made disgust flow onto her face as she looked at him in a way, a way that clearly said 'I don't know you, how could you even make me stay."

"Are you kidding me? Who the hell are you?!" Hand yanked from his swiftly, Rosie began to run off but was halted at someone grabbed a handful of her loose hair and shoved her against the wall, his forearm resting against her windpipe while he sneered at her.

Sirius was just close enough to hear his snarl. "Rosie Hunter, the girl who's past is her future."

"Oh not this again." Rosie said, sighing slightly at the known title between her and the Marauders. The Divination teacher was always extremely concerned and would warn Rosie about it constantly; like she could fix something she didn't even believe in.

"That's just weak. Who'd you steal that from? Professor Elayne? You fucktards really need to work on your nicknames. I'll give that one a two at the most. And I'm just being genero-"

Everything she was saying was snatched away as he pressed his forearm down on her throat, cutting off her string of words as well as her oxygen to her brain.

Sirius was about to run and help her when he felt something connect with the back of his head and he dropped down to his knees and then straight onto his face with a thud.

Rosie struggled against the man, her fingers clawing at his arm as she tried to stay calm. If she let herself panic, she'd start to hyperventilate and the tiny bit of oxygen she had left in her lungs would be gone within seconds.

But Rosie had never been the best swimmer; she couldn't even hold her breath for a grand total of twenty seconds, so how was she meant to hold it while she tried to save herself?

She couldn't help gasping as someone smashed something over the back of Sirius' head and he smashed to the ground.

Her tiny supply of air was gone that very second but the man kept the pressure on, slowly wheedling the life from her as he spoke.

"Girl, you were born to die. Not most of us have the talent of Divination, but I do." He sneered at her.

Rosie wrinkled her nose up as he breathed over her. If she was going to die, she'd prefer to smell something a lot better in her last moments than what smelt like a mixture of rotten cabbage and horseshit.

"What I see in your future is your past. Do you know what that means, you whore?"

His free hand started to move down to the buttons of her shirt while the other held more pressure on her throat. She started to lose consciousness and her struggles grew weaker.

Rosie knew what was going to happen next, the way her shirt's buttons were slowing coming undone concreted that fact, but he didn't shut up.

"That means," Another button gone. "That you," Yet another gone. "Are going to die."

He grew impatient and ripped at her shirt, the buttons flying off. His hand moved to try and find the clasp for her bra.

Rosie couldn't struggle anymore, she was fighting with all her might not to let him kill her and the one thing she couldn't help thinking was that she was absolutely glad that she'd given herself to Sirius when she did, so she didn't give the bastard trying to rape her the satisfaction of a virgin.

Everything felt like she was feeling and seeing it through water, every sound was far off.

The last thing Rosie knew before she let the blackness take her was the sensation of being let go, left to fall to the floor as all the dark figures disappeared around them, leaving many students bleeding on the floor and many others cowering within the compartments.


	39. Chapter 39- Author's Note

**Author's note: **

Okay, hello to all the people who read this fic. Now, even if you wont admit it, it's pretty fast paced, bits are missing and it lacks description. Also, the relationships are kind of rushed as well.

So...I'm officially re-writing Proving the Heart Wrong.


	40. Chapter 40- Author's note 2

**Yet another author's note:**

Due to a lovely review by one of you lovely people, I'll put the link for the re-write here. The chapter that I've written is definitely longer and it wont be as fast as the other (things wont be skipped).

it's simply called Proving the Heart Wrong (Re-write)

s/9154067/1/Proving-the-Heart-Wrong-Re-write


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